The reigning queen of hip-hop has deactivated her Twitter account, reportedly in response to fan site NickiDaily having uploaded snippets from her sophomore album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, without her permission.
Now, when you go to the site, all you see is a white screen with the word “closed” in the center, and the faint sound of “Dear Old Nicki” playing on a loop.
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The Young Money emcee vanished from the Twitter world last night after blocking the site, but not before she tweeted her frustrations to millions of followers:
According to dajaz1.com — a part of the Complex media network — the “snippets” weren’t taken from illegal downloads, but ripped from iTunes.
In a recent interview with DJ Clue, Nicki said she believed Roman Reloaded would sell much more than Pink Friday. Although the album did quite well financially — selling over 250,000 copies its first week — fans and critics agree that the multiple Minaj personalities battling for attention on the album just didn’t live up to its hype.
Minaj also made headlines this week after making some pretty controversial statements in her Nightline interview with ABC’s Juju Chang.
When asked about comparisons to pop diva Lady Gaga, Minaj explained, “First of all, I’m a rapper…I’m from South side Jamaica, Queens. What are the similarities?”
She added, “Gaga is a fantastic artist … She’s opened her own lane, but I feel like I have my own lane, and we never cross… EVER!”
Following that interview, in which she candidly spoke about her childhood and growing up in an abusive household, Minaj received backlash from family members who claim the accusations made against her father — a recovering crack addict — were grossly inflated.
Family sources told TMZ, “Nicki’s anecdotes are grossly exaggerated — Omar admits he had anger issues when she was a child … but insists it NEVER reached the point Nicki described in her interview.”
Although the artist doesn’t seem to be on her way to family reconciliation any time soon, there’s still hope that her loyal fan base will see her return to the web — she has 30 days to reinstate her Twitter account.
Follow Briana Lopes on Twitter at @briananikohl