With a line that will be remembered for years to come, Nicki Minaj shocked viewers of the 2015 MTV VMAs as she took the stage this past Sunday to address the controversy surrounding an interview Miley Cyrus gave with the New York Times. “Miley, what’s good?,” asked Minaj.

It was a response ignited from a feud that started with a snub for the Video of the Year nomination. Stars such as Beyonce, Kendrick Lamar, Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, and Taylor Swift lined up as contenders for the award- but there was no mention of Nicki Minaj in the category.

Although Minaj’s ‘Anaconda’ video had broken the current record of most views in 24 hours by reaching a staggering 19.6 million views within the first day of release, it remained unrecognized.

Minaj took to Twitter once the nominations were released, stating that “If I was a different “kind” of artist, Anaconda would be nominated for best choreo and vid of the year as well.”  She then followed up with her remark, adding that “When the “other” girls drop a video that breaks records and impacts culture they get that nomination.”

In a classic case of misinterpretation, Taylor Swift shot back with with hurt feelings. “I’ve done nothing but love & support you. It’s unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot.”

The issue is that Minaj wasn’t calling Swift out at all– she was simply acknowledging the systematic racism that plagues the music industry. Swift’s misread directed the attention away from the issue at hand and made it all about herself. While the two did clarify with each other and publicly make up, controversy struck again as Miley Cyrus gave her opinion of the dispute in an interview with the New York Times.

Cyrus stated in her interview “I don’t respect your statement because of the anger that came with it… What I read sounded very Nicki Minaj, which, if you know Nicki Minaj is not too kind. It’s not very polite.”

But that statement proved exactly what Nicki was talking about– she was simply addressing the way in which white women in the entertainment industry are praised– exalted, even– for being ‘edgy’ and breaking down social stigmas and barriers, while black women are constantly slandered, labelled as ‘ghetto,’ and looked over as trashy, violent, and angry. Cyrus had immediately assumed that Minaj was speaking solely from a place of personal animosity because of her snub, and failed to see that the issue at hand goes much deeper than just the award.

Cyrus then added “I know you can make it seem like, Oh I just don’t understand because I’m a white pop star. I know the statistics. I know what’s going on in the world.” But while she may know the statistics, Cyrus has constantly come under fire for her appropriation of black culture, ranging from her use of black women as props in her ‘We Can’t Stop’ video to her cornrows, blaccent, and most recently- the fake dreads she dared to wear to the VMAs.
In short, Minaj called out the VMAs for their racism, Swift had a misread, Cyrus addressed the comments and said that Minaj made it about herself… and then arrived in classically appropriative attire, proving Minaj’s point.