Why is Nicki Minaj Blackballed At The Grammys? Ken Erlich Feud Explained

Nicki Minaj
Mike Coppola/Getty Images for MTV

It can be shocking to learn that Nicki Minaj has never even won a Grammy Award on her music career, despite being one of the most awarded rappers in history.

With her expansive discography, timeless music, acclaimed lyricsm, and impact in the rap music scene, it's baffling why the Queen of Rap hasn't received her flowers from The Recording Academy.

Minaj infamously lost her five Grammy nominations including the Best New Artist Grammy in 2012 after causing controversy moments before the actual show.

Why Is Nicki Minaj Blackballed At The Grammys?

In 2019, Nicki Minaj revealed on an episode of Queen Radio that moments before she stepped into her iconic 2012 Grammy performance, people from the Academy informed her that they would be pulling the plug on her entire performance set.

Grammy officials asked her to not perform because Whitney Houston passed away the night before in the same building. Nicki Minaj revealed that she did not understand their reasoning.

"Even then it made absolutely no sense [...] This is after I had done a bunch of commercials with L.L. Cool J to promote the Grammys [...]," Nicki revealed. "After I did everything they asked, they told me not to perform. I said, 'No I'm going to perform.'," she said at the time.

After Nicki Minaj performed her now-controversial "Roman Holiday" performance, she was criticized intensely by the Catholic Church because of her usage of lewd imagery of the Catholic Faith. The performance went down as the most iconic performance at the Grammy Awards ever.

Nicki Minaj, Ken Erlich Feud Explained

Hollywood Life reported that they saw Minaj's tweet about a producer.

"I pissed off the same man Ariana just called out for lying," Minaj revealed, alluding to Ariana Grande's public spat with Ken Erlich. "Grammy producer KEN. I was bullied into staying quiet for 7 years out of fear. But I'll tell my fans the REAL on the next episode of #QueenRadio they deserve the truth."

Minaj lost her five Grammy nominations that night, despite being one of the biggest artists and rappers of that year. She lost the Best Artist Grammy to Bon Iver, and "Pink Friday," which has inspired generations of female rappers surprisingly lost too.

Although Nicki Minaj has received nominations as the year went by for "Anaconda," "Starships," "Bang Bang," "The Pinkprint," and "Barbie World," she has never attended the Grammys since 2015.

Many speculate that because of this issue, Nicki Minaj would never win her own Grammy Award, making it all the more frustrating because she should have earned one a long time ago, at the height of her career.

Last Sunday, Barbz, Minaj's loyal fanbase was distraught with the Grammys for mistakenly announcing on their website and social media accounts that Minaj and Ice Spice won Best Rap Song for "Barbie World," only for it to be announced at the Premiere Ceremony that it was Killer Mike's "Scientists and Engineers" who took home the Grammy.

Tags
Nicki Minaj, Grammys, Grammy Awards
Join the Discussion
Real Time Analytics