I’m sure you’ve heard all the sayings about haters in your years: “Make your haters your motivators,” “Haters gonna hate,” “Let the haters hate,” and who could forget the catchy song, “Hi hater”? Nicki Minaj even sent love to her haters in her hit song, “Moment 4 Life” when she said, Shoutout to my haters, sorry that you couldn’t phase me. But as we know as of late, a few of her haters got under the rapper and her bosses’ skin so much that she backed out of performing at Hot 97’s Summer Jam concert this past weekend.
DJ Peter Rosenberg got on stage during Summer Jam before the femmeC’s scheduled performance and declared that her song “Starships” (not Nicki Minaj as a whole) was “wack” and panned it as not being “real hip-hop.” Rosenberg has talked many times on his show, “The Cipha Sounds and Rosenberg Show,” about being one of those old-fogy, take-’em-back-to-the-old-days-of-hip-hop heads and has made his feelings vocal about “Starships” for a while. Once those comments were known to Lil Wayne and his team, he told Nicki that she shouldn’t take the stage. She and the YMCMB camp didn’t stand down from their choice, and through a barrage of Tweets from Roman Zolanski and her camp, she let folks know that while she will ride with her fans until the end, R-E-S-P-E-C-T was most important in this situation. She also reiterated that point in her interview with Funkmaster Flex yesterday.
After doing some thinking, I will say that I don’t disagree with Nicki’s anger and some of the comments she’s made. There is honestly something jacked up about a radio station making money off of you and then turning around and having one of its biggest representatives say you made a wack song, publicly, before you’re slated to hit the stage for them. Doing so before her performance could have fostered negative energy amongst the crowd, and that’s not cool. In everyday terms, that’s like someone asking you to help them cook for Thanksgiving, you get ready to slave over the stove, and then a family member tells Auntie Jackie and ‘nem that a dish you made before was the wackest thing they ever tasted. I’m sure you would feel some sort of way about bringing the plate of dressing after the fact. A random example, but I’m sure you understand. However, DJ Peter Rosenberg isn’t an influential fan who could make or break her, he was a random guy with an opinion. That’s it. Why get so bent out of shape that you let this man cheat your fans out of their chance to see you?
This is not only about hip-hop, but this situation reminds me of the confusion people have between individuals being haters and having an opinion. An opinion with some truth to it that they’re not ready to face. Sure, DJ Rosenberg expressed his opinions at an unnecessary time, but these weren’t new opinions he was expressing, nor was it an opinion that I’m sure she hadn’t heard before. He didn’t say that as a whole, Nicki Minaj wasn’t real hip-hop or that she was a wack musician all around, but that her song “Starships” isn’t real hip hop. And, uh, HELLO, I’m sure even she knows that it’s not. But why care so much when you were the same person saying on the radio that you weren’t worried about pleasing old hip-hop fans anymore anyway?
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Instead of putting a sour face on and bailing on her fans, homegirl should have come out, performed like it was her last show, tore up the stage and flipped the middle finger to those at the station who felt the need to throw shade. Make an announcement or throw out a diss to the one person who initially tried to play you, and prove that despite a few pop-py tracks, you ARE still repping for real hip-hop! But no, instead, she left a crowd full of hard-working Barbez who paid to see her standing hot, angry and crazy looking with their colorful wigs on. Even MJ didn’t do that when he could have, and he had a catalog of classics attached to his name since childhood!
These days it seems that when folks say something that others aren’t ready to hear or don’t want to face, the easy thing to do now is to throw your hands in the air, throw in the towel and call them a straight up hater. Or better yet, drop the mic, grab your sidekick SB and go back to the hotel. Instead of trying to counter them with a thoughtful or snarky response, or better yet, ignore them and even prove them wrong, people like to walk around pretending that anyone who doesn’t agree with their way of doing things is only seeking to throw shade. Don’t get me wrong, there are people out there who live to do things like that (just ask folks who can never like or appreciate something an individual does or puts out because they made up their mind that they don’t like that person). But sometimes, it never hurts to listen to what folks have to say so that you can decipher who is really crazy and who really is trying to tell you something real. Some people who comment on Madame Noire could easily be deemed as “haters” sometimes, but there are a great many who inspire new, unique story ideas, make us rethink the way we do and say certain things (anybody noticed we’ve calmed down on “ratchet”??) and helped us change things–well, the things we can control. Either way, nobody’s remarks, good or bad, would make me log off and walk away from doing what I love, and a stinging opinion with some truth in it would just make me want to do better or prove folks wrong.
Outside of entertainment, there are too many people out here tipping the scales and living unhealthy because they want to call everyone a hater when someone says they’re getting too big. Too many individuals going back to s***y men and ignoring the worries of others because they want to prove a point. And don’t forget about the folks who aren’t living up to their full potential and scream, “Whatever, you’re just hating” when someone calls them on it. I can go on. But when are we going to stop ignoring the criticisms and start either learning from them or taking them for what they’re worth and moving on?
While we’d all like to always be right and look like we can do no wrong, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to listen to what folks are saying before we automatically dismiss it as hate. People are going to like what they like, and aren’t going to like what they don’t want to like. And in a country that allows folks like Minaj the free speech to call people “Nappy headed ho*es,” and say she wants to put her imaginary d**k on a hater’s face, she better get used to the criticism, grow a thick skin and do so fast before she alienates those who matter most: her fans.
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