by Nemsie Gonzalez
If you haven’t already seen icon Nicki Minaj’s meltdowns on TikTok, X, Instagram live or Spotify, I encourage you to stop reading right now and listen to “Bigfoot.” And no, you should not listen to the acoustic version. You’ll find that the beat is one of the few redeeming pieces of the song and to eliminate it makes the song nearly unbearable, until you’ve listened to it four or five times. While I’m a Nicki fan and generally appreciate her genius and lyricism, surprisingly few of these qualities interwoven with our view of the queen can be found in her new song.
While Minaj is no stranger to controversy or diss tracks, so rarely do we see her spiral or react to accusations or comments in such an outspoken and emphatic way. The beef, of course, was prompted by the release of Megan Thee Stallions’s new single “Hiss.” While the song doesn’t outwardly name Minaj, many believe the line “These hoes don’t be mad at Megan, these hoes mad at Megan’s Law” to be about Minaj’s brother and husband. “Megan’s Law” refers to a federal law requiring that law enforcement provide information to the public on registered sex offenders in a given area. Both Minaj’s husband Kenneth Petty and brother Jelani Maraj have been convicted for the sexual-assault of underage girls, leading fans to believe the line was aimed at Minaj.
Megan’s song throws digs at a variety of people in the industry and serves as a response to the lack of support Megan has been given in the music industry. Even so, Minaj came out with a response within an hour of the song’s release. Shortly after, Minaj started teasing her new single “Bigfoot” on Instagram live, all the while going to X and Tiktok to air her grievances, not just towards Megan but to anyone who was supporting Megan or commenting on Petty. The song itself pales in comparison to every song in “Pink Friday.” Nearly every line can be found quoted word for word in her lives or tweets. At three minutes, the back track fades away and we’re left with one minute and 22 seconds of Minaj speaking to Megan directly and threatening to expose her.
While we may be tempted as part of her cult following to give Minaj the benefit of the doubt, so many of her lines are unoriginal, boring or low hanging fruit. Seeing as Megan has addressed many of the topics brought up by Minaj: Megan’s late mother, alcoholism, Tory Lanez, her body count and her height, many of which she addressed in the song “Hiss” directly, Minaj’s criticisms of her character do not pack the punch we need to call the song a success. This, coupled with the overly repetitive nature of the song, with the repetition of the same word happening more than once, causes the “diss” to come out as dry and uninspired.
Despite the large amounts of criticism, Barbz have still managed to put “Bigfoot” on the charts for US Apple Music, placing it right behind number one “Hiss.” Fans can only wait in anticipation for a response from Megan or the second installment of “Bigfoot.” Until then, we can keep replaying “Pink Friday” and “Traumazine.”