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Nicki Minaj has just under a month before the release of her highly anticipated fifth studio album, Pink Friday 2, and all eyes are on the superstar rapper ahead of the drop. The Queens, N.Y. native graced the cover of the December issue of Vogue, and Nick Minaj shares more about her creative process, motherhood, and more.
Nicki Minaj and her body of work transformed the landscape of Hip-Hop not only for women who followed after her but overall. Her impact as an artist and her prowess as a hit-making lyricist have elevated her to legendary status among her adoring fans lovingly known as the “Barbz,” and many of her peers.
Source: Norman Jean Roy / Vogue
Few will forget Minaj’s scene-stealing turn on Kanye West’s star-studded posse cut “Monster” and Nicki’s anchoring verse. Since then, she’s remained a high-charting favorite. But now, she’s hoping to get back to the essence of why she began doing music, even though the weight of success has had an effect.
Minaj is featured on the cover of this month’s Vogue magazine and in the dazzling shots within, Minaj looks regal and at peace, most especially during a shot featuring her son, Papa Bear. Still, the main portion of the cover story is centered on Minaj hoping to get back to why she began creating music.
Source: Norman Jean Roy / Vogue
From Vogue:
“I think a lot of creators will understand this,” she ventures. “There’s a freeness that you have around you when you’re at your best, when you’re doing your thing at your peak. There’s like this lightness in the air. You’re happy even if you’re writing a sad song. But once you start knowing that you’re being judged, there’s no longer that free spirit. People who excel at something make it look easy, but they also deal with a lot of fear of letting people down and of letting themselves down. Once you make it, it’s like anything you say can be used against you. It’s like when you get arrested—that’s literally what being famous feels like. You go from having this fun, curious nature, laughing and joking, to realizing not everyone gets your sense of humor, not everyone likes you. And they will figure out how to put a negative spin on anything you do. It hurts.”
Throughout the piece, Minaj shows a side of herself that’s not always present in the music. The vulnerability juxtaposed with her unwavering confidence in her abilities is still displayed. She also gets into her marriage to Kenneth Petty, speaking honestly about her desire to dive into raising her child and leaving the game behind.
Thankfully, Nicki Minaj is very much still on course to create. Pink Friday 2 is slated to be released on December 8 and if the reactions on social media to the cover story going wide are an indication, she’ll be making her return to the top of the charts again.
Check out the full cover story from Vogue here.
Keep scrolling to see reactions from X, formerly known as Twitter.
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Photo: Norman Jean Roy / Vogue
Billy Porter is once again taking aim at Harry Styles‘ appearance on the cover of Vogue in 2020.
In an interview with The Telegraph, published Friday (Aug. 11), the 53-year-old Pose star rehashes his negative feelings about Styles becoming Vogue‘s first male cover star. He also slams the magazine’s longtime editor Anna Wintour, who interviewed him shortly before Styles’ cover hit newsstands.
“That b—- said to me at the end, ‘How can we do better?’ And I was so taken off guard that I didn’t say what I should have said,” Porter tells The Telegraph, adding that he should’ve told her, “Use your power as Vogue to uplift the voices of the leaders of this de-gendering of fashion movement … Six months later, Harry Styles is the first man on the cover.”
The December 2020 issue of Vogue features a cover photo of the British pop star wearing a Gucci dress. In the story, he discusses his gender-bending fashion and drawing inspiration from the likes of David Bowie, Prince and Elton John.
In his Telegraph interview, Porter explains that he doesn’t have a problem specifically with the former One Direction member.
“It’s not Harry Styles’ fault that he happens to be white and cute and straight and fit into the infrastructure that way,” the Tony-and Grammy-winner explains. “I call out the gatekeepers.”
He adds, “[Styles is] white and he’s straight. That’s why he’s on the cover. Non-binary blah blah blah blah. No. It doesn’t feel good to me. You’re using my community — or your people are using my community — to elevate you. You haven’t had to sacrifice anything.”
This isn’t Porter’s first time airing his frustrations with Styles’ Vogue cover. In an October 2021 interview with The Sunday Times, the Kinky Boots star called out the “Watermelon Sugar” singer’s Vogue shoot, saying it was a snub to pioneers like himself who worked to make androgynous and genderfluid fashion more mainstream.
“I’m not dragging Harry Styles, but he is the one you’re going to try and use to represent this new conversation? He doesn’t care, he’s just doing it because it’s the thing to do,” Porter said at the time. “This is politics for me. This is my life. I had to fight my entire life to get to the place where I could wear a dress to the Oscars and not be gunned down. All he has to do is be white and straight.”
Porter later clarified his comments during an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
“Apparently I’m famous now, and it was a slow news day, so the first thing I want to say is, ‘Harry Styles, I apologize to you for having your name in my mouth,’” he told Colbert in November 2021. “It’s not about you. The conversation is not about you… the conversation is actually deeper than that. It is about the oppression and the erasure of people of color who contribute to the culture. That’s a lot to unpack. I’m willing to unpack it sans the dragging and culture of the Internet because I do not now, nor will I ever, adjudicate my life or humanity in sound bites on social media. So when you’re ready to have the real conversation, call a b—-!”
Condé Nast has reached a settlement to end a lawsuit against Drake and 21 Savage over their use of a fake Vogue magazine cover to promote their album Her Loss, Billboard has confirmed.
The agreement, first reported by the news site Semafor, includes a permanent injunction barring any further use of Condé Nast’s Vogue trademarks, as well as an undisclosed monetary payment from Drake and 21.
In an internal email independently obtained by Billboard, Condé Nast general counsel William Bowes said the company was “glad to put this matter behind us” but explained why the publishing giant had felt the need to file the lawsuit against the two rappers.
“As a creative company, we of course understand our brands may from time to time be referenced in other creative works,” Bowes wrote in the note. “In this instance, however, it was clear to us that Drake and 21 Savage leveraged Vogue’s reputation for their own commercial purposes and, in the process, confused audiences who trust Vogue as the authoritative voice on fashion and culture.”
Representatives for Drake, 21 Savage and Condé Nast all declined to comment.
The fake Vogue cover was part of a broader phony media blitz from the two stars, aimed at promoting the November launch of their album Her Loss. They also released a fake Saturday Night Live performance, teased a similar fake appearance on NPR’s Tiny Desk series and created an elaborate deepfake interview with Howard Stern.
NPR and Stern both publicly embraced the joke, but Condé Nast wasn’t laughing about the fake Vogue cover.
In a lawsuit filed Nov. 7 in Manhattan federal court, the publisher called the stunt a “flagrant infringement” of the company’s trademark rights, aimed at exploiting the “tremendous value that a cover feature in Vogue magazine carries” without actually securing that honor. Condé specifically pointed to Drake’s Instagram post teasing the fake cover story, in which he personally thanked famed Vogue editor Anna Wintour.
“Vogue magazine and its Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour have had no involvement in Her Loss or its promotion, and have not endorsed it in any way,” the company’s lawyers wrote at the time. “Nor did Condé Nast authorize, much less support, the creation and widespread dissemination of a counterfeit issue of Vogue, or a counterfeit version of perhaps one of the most carefully curated covers in all of the publication business.”
Just days later, a federal judge largely agreed with Condé Nast, issuing a preliminary injunction forcing the stars to pull down all references to the fake Vogue cover. The judge said the faux cover likely violated the publisher’s trademarks by “misleading consumers” and “deceiving the public.”
In the internal letter announcing the settlement, Bowes said Condé Nast had repeatedly attempted to resolve the dispute without resorting to litigation but had been “left with no other option” after the superstars ignored their requests to stop.
“We have a fundamental duty to protect our IP when it’s clear that it’s being used without permission for something other than serving our audience,” Bowes wrote in the letter.
A formal notice of settlement has not yet been filed in the federal court overseeing the lawsuit.
Drake and 21 Savage‘s fake Vogue cover is no more.
After publisher Condé Nast hit them with a lawsuit for promoting fake cover story in the heralded magazine to market their new album, Her Loss, the rappers have “voluntarily ceased and desisted” from all uses of the Vogue cover and trademark as well as the name, image or likeness of editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and any false or misleading statements concerning the magazine to promote the album. This includes taking down all public displays of the fake cover, including online and social media posts and any physical copies. Importantly, all of those actions were required under a temporary restraining order issued by a federal judge on Nov. 10 backing up the publisher’s lawsuit.
The new document, filed in New York federal court on Thursday (Nov. 17), notes that Drake and 21 Savage agreed only to take down the image “to avoid unnecessary cost and expense” while they continue to fight the case. The filing explicitly noted they were not “conceding any liability” or “wrongdoing” in the matter.
The fake Vogue cover was one of several fake promos for Her Loss, which dropped Nov. 4. These so-called deepfakes also included sham appearances by the rappers on NPR’s Tiny Desk series and The Howard Stern Show.
Though Tiny Desk greeted the stunt with good humor — even inviting the rappers to appear on the show for real — and Stern joked about the incident on his SiriusXM series, Condé Nast was less than amused. In a complaint filed Nov. 9, the publisher’s lawyers characterized the stunt as a “flagrant infringement” of the company’s trademark rights, designed to exploit the “tremendous value that a cover feature in Vogue magazine carries” without actually being granted that privilege. The suit demanded an immediate injunction forcing the rappers, along with Drake’s PR agency Hiltzik Strategies, which was named as a co-defendant, to cease all uses of the “counterfeit cover.”
On Nov. 10, the Condé Nast lawsuit was followed by a temporary restraining order issued by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, who ruled the fake cover was likely violating the publisher’s trademarks because Drake and 21 were “misleading consumers” and “deceiving the public.” Notably, such restraining orders are only granted to plaintiffs who are deemed likely to win their case.
One particular point of contention outlined in the complaint was an Instagram post by Drake teasing the fake cover story, in which the superstar personally thanked Wintour for the honor. In the suit, Condé Nast’s lawyers wrote that Vogue and Wintour in fact “had no involvement in Her Loss or its promotion, and have not endorsed it in any way” and that the publisher did not “authorize, much less support,” the release of “a counterfeit version of perhaps one of the most carefully curated covers in all of the publication business.”
The lawyers went on to write that the deep fake was so convincing that several media outlets reported that the cover was in fact real, adding, “The confusion among the public is unmistakable.”
As the legal drama continues to unfold, Drake and 21 Savage may argue that the fake media blitz was meant as a parody of the way media and artists work together to promote album launches; in some circumstances, laws allow for the proliferation of such spoofs without repercussion. That may be a difficult argument to make, however. As Condé Nast noted in its lawsuit, the fake Vogue issue disseminated both online and physically represented “a complete, professionally reprinted reproduction” of the magazine, with “no indication that it is anything other than the cover of an authentic Vogue issue.”
Condé Nast did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest filing.
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