The iconic rapper Onika Maraj, known as Nicki Minaj, sat down to discuss the pervasive nature of the music industry, highlighting that today’s stan culture is largely a result of her supporters. She gave a special shoutout to her loyal fanbase, The Barbz for their unwavering support.
On October 16th, Nicki Minaj hung out with the fashion icon Anna Wintour. Prior to that, she sat down with Vogue at the magazine’s Forces of Fashion event in New York, where she discussed her influence on the emergence of passionate fanbases in rap. In addition to this, she shared her thoughts on her new role as a mother, her evolving style, and her perspective on overcoming challenges in her life, addressing all the topics that fans have always been curious about in a positive light.
Nicki stated, “Before I signed a record deal, my fans were creating their own moments on Twitter. I had already given them a name. When I began referring to my fans as the Barbz, there weren’t any other rappers naming their fanbases.”
“There were only two people at that time, and I don’t know which came first — Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga, they had Beliebers and Monsters. That was it!”
The Barbz
Nicki went on and expressed the feeling of being in the industry, sharing her thought of artists relating and naming their supportive fan base “now, every single human being that becomes an artist gives their fans a name.” Even artists in other countries. Some of the African artists that I love, when I would look into them, they would have names for their fanbase!
“And I was like, ‘Woah.’ I didn’t think it was something that would spread to the Hip Hop community at all. But it doesn’t matter because the Barbz are still superior.”
Pink Friday 2
Before Nicki expressed how much the Barbz mean to her, she talked about achieving the impressive milestone of being the highest-grossing female artist, with over $100 million from 786,840 paid tickets. She then went on to share her love for her Barbz.
