Nicki Minaj Blasted for Posting Video Seemingly Mocking a Mentally Ill Woman

Elizabeth Durand Streisand

Mental illness is no laughing matter — just ask Nicki Minaj. The 33-year-old rapper is being raked over the coals after posting a video on Instagram that showcases an incident between herself and a woman deemed to be mentally ill. The video begins with the woman standing on a sidewalk in Miami’s South Beach, a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other. She’s clearly watching Minaj as Minaj films her … and she isn’t happy about it.

The woman shouts at Minaj to “go away” and starts to walk off, prompting the star to ask, “What did I do?” Minaj then tells the woman she looks “nice” and asks, “Can we talk?” By that point, the woman has wandered pretty far down the street and Minaj begins talking to a man who is closer who tells her that he’s a fan. Within about 24 hours, the video was viewed nearly 2 million times, and plenty of people weren’t thrilled with what they’d seen — especially those who claimed to be Miami residents and affirmed that the woman featured in the clip was, in fact, mentally ill.

“You can clearly tell this woman has [a] mental illness and didn’t want to be filmed, period,” one viewer reasoned. “If I was u Nicki I would remove this post, I know u didn’t know she was sick.” Another chimed in, adding, “She asked you to leave her alone. I’m sure you would expect to be left alone when you need to be. Poor lady :(.”

But fans weren’t the only ones taking aim at the “Black Barbies” singer. The National Alliance on Mental Illness’s Miami-Dade County branch issued its own official comment, arguing, “Nobody would make fun of a cancer patient, and mental illness is an illness like any other.” Shortly thereafter, Wendy Williams used airtime on her show to back up that claim.

Wendy Williams attends the 33rd Annual Alzheimer's Association. (Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)
Wendy Williams weighed in on the Nicki Minaj dustup. (Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)

“Nicki, you can’t do that! You need to be a lot more sensitive to mental illness,” Wendy argued, noting that Nicki probably had an entourage in the car with her and someone should have told her to stop, and citing the statement from NAMI. “We all have our ways where we forget about being sensitive, but that was direct,” Williams added. “It makes you look like an insensitive b****.”

Minaj has yet to respond to Williams, NAMI, or fans, but the fact that she hasn’t taken down the video yet probably speaks for itself.