Nicki Minaj is taking credit for being the very first rapper with a fan army, but is she?
Nicki Takes Credit for Fan Army Culture in Rap
On Wednesday (Oct. 17), Vogue magazine published a feature on Nicki from an interview conducted at Vogue’s Forces of Fashion event in New York City on Wednesday. During the interview, the Queens, N.Y. rapper spoke on style, motherhood and music, and also touched on fandom, specifically the impact of her fan army, known as the Barbz.
“Before l had a record deal, my fans were making a moment for themselves on Twitter,” she told the publication. “I had already given them a name. At the time, there were no rappers naming their fans. Justin Bieber had the Beliebers, and Lady Gaga had the Little Monsters.”
She continued: “Now, every single artist gives their fans a name. But it doesn’t matter, because the Barbz are still superior. They are different because what they do, they do it with passion and love. Sometimes people do things, and it’s rooted in revenge or vengeance, and that doesn’t really go anywhere. It doesn’t take off. But the Barbz and I really love each other.”
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Rappers’ Fan Armies
While Nicki’s Barbz are definitely one of the most formidable fan armies in hip-hop, the godfather of Stan culture is Eminem who penned the song “Stan” about his overzealous fans all the way back in 2000. The word Stan has been so entrenched in the mainstream that it was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2019, defined as “to exhibit fandom to an extreme or excessive degree: to be an extremely devoted and enthusiastic fan of someone or something.”
Several other rappers have garnered fan armies over the years including Cardi B’s Bardi Gang, Drake’s Team Drizzy, Doja Cat’s Kittenz, Ice Spice’s Munchkins, Kendrick Lamar’s Kenfolk and more. Outside of hip-hop, Beyoncé’s Beyhive and Taylor Swift’s Swifties are as rabid as they come.
