Well, that escalated quickly.
While on The Ellen Degeneres Show, which airs Tuesday (September 4), Nicki Minaj expressed how she really felt when she found out her album Queen debuted at number two behind Travis Scott's Astroworld."I wanted to punch him in his f**king face," the "Barbie Dreams" rapper told Ellen, before clarifying that that doesn't make her angry about the defeat.
"It's not anger: it's what's right and what's wrong and what's fair," she said, referencing her recent claims that Travis manipulated his album's sales to claim the number one spot.
"I've had a No. 2 album and I never cared. It's just that when you have a No. 2 album to someone who is selling shirts and merch—and selling passes for a tour that isn't announced yet—it feels like you're being tricked," she explained. "It feels like someone is playing a game and beating you at a game opposed to just selling music. I want to sell music!"
"He didn't have the No. 1 album," Nicki added. "Queen was the No. 1 album."
Nicki seems to think that the bundling of album sales with merch — a common practice in the music industry, which has reportedly been used by Nicki herself — is cheating the system.
As previously reported, the "Chun-Li" rapper has gone on quite a few rants since it was revealed that Queen didn't top the Billboard 200 chart. “I put my blood sweat and tears in writing a dope album only for Travis Scott to have [his girlfriend] Kylie Jenner post a tour pass telling ppl to come see her & [her daughter] Stormi,” she tweeted last month. “I’m actually laughing."
Nicki also said on her radio show, "What we're not gonna do is have that Auto-Tune man selling f**king sweaters telling you he sold half a million albums because he f**king didn't. You stupid f**k... You got your f**king homeboy talking for you and you got your girlfriend selling tour passes. Stop it. Knock it the f**k off."
While the "Ganja Burn" rapper still does not agree with the albums' standings, she is grateful for her album's success.
"To even have that much, to do such a big number, is a big deal," she told Ellen. "I want to make sure I say this, because sometimes people think you're ungrateful, and I'm the most grateful person in the world. I love being grateful and remembering that things can be worse, OK? I started from nothing. I'm one of those people who...I get it. But I don't like being bullied and I don't like being taken advantage of. Sometimes people use scare tactics against you because they know, especially as a black woman, people will call you 'angry' or 'bitter.' So, now it's almost like we're not allowed to defend ourselves or stand up for ourselves. And I'm not going to have that."
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