Nicki Minaj's Latest Video Looks a Lot Like Nazi Propaganda Films

The lyric video for Nicki Minaj’s latest single, "Only," was released this weekend, and boy, does it ever flirt heavily with Nazi imagery. The animated black-and-white video casts Minaj as a dictator-like figure, sitting on a throne and being fanned by attendants clad in what look an awful lot like SS uniforms. Minaj is flanked on either side by huge red banners (the only appearance of color in the video) stamped with the YM (Young Money record label) logo, but in this context, it’s hard not to see the graphic similarity to the Nazi flag. Rows of tanks sit parked in front of what looks like the Nuremberg rally grounds (save for a statue of Minaj in the same pose she struck on the “Anaconda” single cover).

And there’s more: soldiers wearing SS-reminiscent armbands, Minaj against a backdrop of scores of WWII jet fighters, gas masks and more. If director Jeff Osborne wasn’t going for a Triumph of the Will aesthetic on purpose—a strategy guaranteed to court controversy and drive up click rates—it’s uncanny how much he accidentally nailed it.

Despite plenty of criticism from the Internet and twitterverse, there’s no response yet from Minaj’s camp. Check out the video below:

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h/t Jezebel