Nicki Minaj is weighing in on one of the music industry's most enduring conspiracy theories: the Illuminati.
During a recent interview on The Bryce Crawford Podcast, the Pink Friday 2 rapper was asked directly by the titular evangelist if the Illuminati is real near the 45-minute mark in the video linked here.
While Minaj, 42, didn’t outright confirm that such a group exists, she said that she believes powerful people have worked against her throughout her career.
“My situation, I feel like it's very personal,” Minaj said. “I feel that there definitely is a group of people that have made things very difficult for me, but I don't know if they're Illuminati. I don't know what they are.”
According to Minaj, she has generally viewed those experiences as stemming from specific individuals rather than a vast secret organization.
“I never looked at it as if it was like an entire secret society against me. But who knows, you know? It could be,” Minaj added. “Now, what they call themselves and what they proclaim to be? Only they could tell you that. But has it been a spiritual warfare? Absolutely.”
Looking back at the beginning of her career, Minaj recalled entering the music industry with a far more optimistic outlook.
"In the beginning it was a lot of fun," she said. "I thought everyone just roots for each other and really wants each other to win."
Without naming anyone, Minaj said that perspective eventually changed as she began noticing what she viewed as efforts by influential figures to control opportunities and relationships within the business.
“I started realizing people are really vindictive in this industry,” she said. “I started realizing that if you don't get money with one person or a specific people, they don't want you to get money at all. And that's when I started realizing like, ‘Oh my gosh. What did I sign up for?’ because I didn't know that these people would be so territorial over people that they don't even know [and] that they don't have any claims to.”
She added, “It started feeling like everyone wanted to stake their claim into human beings like they were property, and if you didn't abide by their rules or put money in their pocket, they would actively try to stop you from making money to feed your family from prospering in the industry that you love. That's when a different light bulb went off in my head.”
Elsewhere in the podcast, Minaj said she wishes she had understood earlier how much of the music industry would involve battles beyond the music itself.
"It was like constant spiritual warfare," she said. “I wish I would have known sooner that this music industry was such a spiritual experience because I felt like I bought a knife to a gunfight without having that information. I feel like I was ill-equipped for what was ahead and no one had given me a heads up, and I had to figure it out when I got there.”
