Janelle Monáe has slammed Nelly for performing at Donald Trump‘s inauguration, labelling the rapper a “motherfucking fool”.
Monáe’s lashing out against the ‘Hot In Herre’ rapper came during a Grammys afterparty performance. While the beat of Nelly’s ‘Hot In Herre’ played over the speakers, Monáe rapped: “Fuck you Nelly. I used to like Nelly, but then he went to perform for Donald Trump.
She continued: “I care about women, I care about Hispanics, I care about Spanish people. I care about Mexicans, I care about gay people. You sold out. I used to think you were cool. But now you look like a motherfucking fool.”
“Fuck you, n****. Get a new attitude… I might be a little tipsy but I know everything I’m motherfucking saying. Fuck you, Nelly!,” she concluded. Watch a clip of the scorching freestyle below.
It comes after Nelly and Carrie Underwood were both part of Donald Trump’s inauguration celebration for his return to the White House. After their performances, both artists’ streaming numbers have dipped. Underwood’s streaming numbers fell by 6 per cent, while Nelly’s were streamed 1.54million times on the day of his inauguration, down from 1.63 million a week earlier.
After drawing criticism for his performance, Nelly defended his decision, saying: “I didn’t know that I had to agree with your political choices. If you follow what I do, this shouldn’t even be an argument. He is the president. He won.”
“I’m not doing this for money. I’m doing this because it’s an honor. I respect the office. It don’t matter who is in office. The same way our brothers and sisters go to war to put their life on the line for whoever is in office. So, if they can put their life on the line for whoever is in office, I can damn sure perform for whoever is in office.”
Elsewhere at the Grammys, Janelle Monáe joined Stevie Wonder for a tribute performance in honour of the late, great Quincy Jones. For her segment of the tribute, Monáe performed Michael Jackson‘s ‘Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough’, which was produced by Jones.
The biggest winners of the night were Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé, the latter of whom has finally won Album of the Year and also became the first Black woman in history to win Best Country album, both for ‘Cowboy Carter’. Lamar walked away with the most awards of the night including Record and Song of the Year for ‘Not Like Us’ – check out the full list of winners here.
Drake is Down Under and apparently over his head, as a lot of people online raised their eyebrows when they saw a shirt that he wore while out during his Australia and New Zealand "Anita Max Win" tour. Moreover, the shirt reads "WAIT TILL U SEE MY" and shows an arrow pointing down... Classy, Drizzy, real classy. Of course, this led some people to bring up the allusions to his leaked videos in the Kendrick Lamar battle, whether that was the 6ix God boasting about his "video proof" or K.Dot claiming that he leaked the video himself.
A lot of folks clowned this move as a cringe-fueled display from someone pushing 40 or just found it funny, but either way, folks got a laugh out of it for better or worse. Of course, this is far from the first time that Drake caught flack for his outfits or for his maturity, but that's not a critique that Kanye West had in praise of his latest look. It was a hoodie with bullet holes in it with smoke emerging from them, a solid representation of how he's still standing after so many people dragged him through the mud.
Elsewhere during this Australian trek, Drake also felt quite generous, as he gave two random fans at a Perth show $20K each. "I don’t know where you’ve been in your life... That’s what we do out here in Perth," he remarked. "You got to show love. You see, it’s nights like these that we can never take for granted. It’s 14,000 people inside one building, and we all got here safe." These moments of genuine appreciation and connection make outfits like these all the more bizarre and easy to pile on.
Regardless of whether or not more suggestive shirts are in the closet, Drake will continue his "Anita Max Win" trek all throughout February and wrap it up on March 16 in Auckland. Perhaps we will see more wild fits and virally clowned moments, but there's also a lot of interest in his next projects and whatever Kendrick has to say about the beef these days. So who knows what The Boy's next angle will be?