Nicki Minaj hits out at Little Mix’s Leigh-Anne Pinnock over Jesy Nelson’s “blackfishing” drama
On Instagram Live, the 'Boyz' collaborators responded to alleged DMs from Pinnock
Former Little Mix singer Jesy Nelson’s debut single with Nicki Minaj continues to stir up controversy.
Since ‘Boyz’ was released last Friday, Jesy Nelson has been accused of Blackfishing and putting on a Blaccent.
The feud then thickened when DMs allegedly shared between Instagram user @nohun_ and Leigh-Anne Pinnock showed the Little Mix singer agreeing with the criticism of her ex-bandmate, NME reports.
In the leaked screenshot, Pinnock appears to encourage @nohun_ to “do a video about [Nelson] being a Blackfish,” and says Nelson has “blocked us,” seeming to refer to herself and the other Little Mix members Perrie Edwards and Jade Thirlwall, calling her a “horrible person.”
Nelson and Minaj hosted an Instagram Live chat on Monday, October 11, which saw the US rapper address the leaked DMs at the end of the video session.
“Only jealous people do things like this. It makes you a big jealous bozo. I love you guys but please don’t do this. Let these people be miserable all by themselves,” she said.
“If you was in this woman’s group, and you ain’t talk about this shit for 10 years, and as soon as you see she got a video coming out with Nicki Minaj and Puffy, now you sending text messages and all this shit,” Minaj said about Pinnock. “Print those text messages out, bust your ass open and shove them up your motherfucking ass.”
“Stop trying to hurt people and kill people’s lives and careers, this is the way people feed their families. Stop — if you want a solo career, baby girl, just say that.”
Leigh-Anne Pinnock has been open in the past about the difficulties she’s faced as one of two women of colour in Little Mix, including being mistaken for her bandmate Thirlwall on the cover of Metro.
Jesy Nelson officially left Little Mix in December 2020 and signed a deal with Polydor in May. She starred in a BBC documentary about her experience in the spotlight and dealing with bullying online and in the press.
Last week saw Nelson directly responded to accusations of Blackfishing following the release of ‘Boyz’.
In an interview with Vulture published last week on the same day as her new single release, she was asked if she understood the points made in previous Blackfishing allegations made by The Guardian in August.
“The whole time I was in Little Mix I never got any of that. And then I came out of [the band] and people all of a sudden were saying it,” she says.
“I wasn’t on social media around that time, so I let my team [deal with it], because that was when I’d just left. But I mean, like, I love Black culture. I love Black music. That’s all I know; it’s what I grew up on?
“I’m very aware that I’m a white British woman; I’ve never said that I wasn’t.”