Nicki Minaj announced last week that she was rescheduling the North American leg of her tour, and has since been slamming Travis Scott and his team for tarnishing her concert and album sales.
Scott beat out Minaj for the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200, and it was clear that Minaj was not happy about it. She has been using her Beats 1 radio show on Apple Music, dubbed “Queen Radio,” as a way to openly talk about her thoughts on the industry and to call out her enemies. Last week, she explained how she should have had the No. 1 spot on the Billboard charts, but Scott’s merch sales boosted him to the top.
Travis sold over 50K of these. With no requirement of redeeming the album! With no dates for a tour, etc. I spoke to him. He knows he doesn’t have the #1 album this week. I love my fans for the #1 album in AMERICA! I’ll explain on #QueenRadio 4 albums in, #1 in 86 countries ♥️ pic.twitter.com/CiYEuczgm3
— QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018
My first album sold 400K. No one is doing that with debut albums now. So I’m so grateful. I lost out on 12 hours of sales and did 200K in one week after I was supposedly cancelled. I bit my tongue last #QueenRadio but I won’t On Tuesday. I love you guys so much
— QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018
I put my blood sweat & tears in writing a dope album only for Travis Scott to have Kylie Jenner post a tour pass telling ppl to come see her & Stormi. lol. Im actually laughing. #Queen broke the record of being number 1 in 86 countries. Thank Jesus & thank you to my fans.
— QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018
She also called out Spotify, who reportedly told her they had to “teach her a lesson” for playing her music on Queen Radio 10 minutes before it was released on the platform.
Spotify put drake’s face on every playlist but told me they’d have to teach me a lesson for playing my music 10 mins early on #QueenRadio. Even tho they’ve been giving away my music for free for years & I am one of the top Spotify artists of all time.
— QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018
Spotify had to teach me a lesson but rewarded the man who has had an Apple radio show the longest; inadvertently helping the Apple platform the most. Oh I can’t wait for #QueenRadio on Tuesday. They took away my promotion they had promised for the 1st cpl days b/c of this. #Queen
— QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018
My label didn’t want to defend me for fear of Spotify trying to teach Ariana a “lesson” too! https://t.co/1dAdbcbWVd
— QUEEN (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018
Her latest bone to pick is with Irving Azoff, Scott’s co-manager and former CEO of Live Nation/Ticketmaster. On Queen Radio, she went as far as to name him “[expletive deleted] of the week,” noting that he tried to put out a “smear campaign” against her tour and contacted people in the media to spread negativity.
“May God be with you, Irving,” Minaj said. “It’s disgusting what these people have been systematically trying to do.”
While there are rumors spreading around why Minaj’s tour has been rescheduled – including some unconfirmed reports that ticket sales were low – the rapper claims that she just didn’t have enough time to rehearse. Her North American trek, which was supposed to be a co-headlining run with Future, was set to kick-off on September 21, but will now begin after the European leg in 2019 as a solo run.
Minaj made sure to confirm that the tour hasn’t been cancelled, but instead rescheduled.
“I haven’t CANCELLED anything,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “I reversed the order of the US & EUROPEAN LEGS of my tour. This is for obvious reasons to anyone with a brain. My album was originally going to drop in June which would’ve given me 3 months of tour rehearsal. However, I was still writing & recording up to last week. We are all grown right? We can all do math right? Or will they just pretend to not have basic sense so that they can board the Nicki Hate train & get some clicks? I can’t rehearse 4 WEEKS for a tour I originally planned on rehearsing 3 months for. I give my fans QUALITY.”
Her next Queen Radio show is tonight at 5 p.m. PST/ 8 p.m. EST. Minaj is slated to perform at the Made In America festival this Sunday in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The rapper’s fourth-studio album, Queen, just dropped earlier this month and features hit singles “Chun-Li,” “Barbie Dreams,” and “Bed,” featuring Ariana Grande.