The Ultimate Fandom: The Barbz
Nicki Minaj, the rapper who took the industry by storm and paved the way for female rap musicians has probably one of the most devout and loyal fanbases of our generation: the Barbz. Anyone in the Twitter world knows the Barbz are no joke and if you mess with Nicki Minaj she literally has an army of fans who would most likely sacrifice themselves to fight for her and I mean this. Nicki often refers to herself in her own music as the Queen of Rap, her lyrical genius and numbers on streaming sources can probably confirm this self-proclamation. However, the Queen of Rap does not play well with the princesses but as for her protective fanbase, the Barbz are quick to come to Nicki's defense especially regarding her beef with other female rappers or anyone in general. They even tend to argue with one another regarding Nicki's beef on various social media outlets.
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| The Barbz |
The Barbz name comes from Nicki Minaj's super-feminine alter ego- the Harajuku Barbie. The Barbz does refer to the fanbase in its entirety however, it can be shortened to Harajuku Barbz, Barbiez or HBz. Notice the letter 'z' forming the plural tense as it matches the Queen's lexicon on Twitter and is modeled after such. More specifically Nicki's homosexual male fans are referred to as HKz, Kenz or Ken Barbz. Her heterosexual male fans are known as the Boyz, but she has notably stopped using the term as of recently with no sure reason as to why. One of the Barbz has created a reference list on the fandom website where they cite the tweets Nicki addresses her fans in to confirm these given titles.
To Stan or Not to Stan?
The Barbz get pretty intense [for good reasons] on Twitter whether it be coming to Nicki's defense or arguing about the obstacles that Nicki faces as a black woman in the industry still today. A tweet by a Nicki Minaj fan account (@onikapickles) shared a video clip of Barbz arguing with one another about the kinds of different oppression Nicki's faced as a black female artist in the music industry. Their passion for Nicki and her rise to fame is clear and to see that they've created a chat room with audio where they can discuss her and her life is a little much but at least they're dedicated. After clicking on the hashtag #themoistplace I found some more clips from this chatroom in which the Barbz are just yelling at each other because of a passionate disagreement. This all took place recently on the evening of March 9th, 2021 and several of the statements occurring in the chat started trending on Twitter which can give someone unfamiliar with the Barbz an idea of the size of this fanbase.
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| "The Barbz offer Minaj support, but they insulate her from reality, influencing her process the way that critics cannot." |
The Barbz fanbase seems to mainly interact on Twitter but I was able to find a Youtube video that is a compilation of different tweets from verBarbz fan accounts titled "barbz being the funniest fans ever" that almost has 30,000 views. Some of the video can be easily understood without much context but the majority demonstrates what a tight-knit community this is considering the different inside jokes that someone outside of the fandom would perhaps not understand. One thing I found interesting in the video is their reference to $1.29- this is the cost of a single song on iTunes so they're discussing how they buy Nicki's songs in order to raise them on various music charts. When I dug into the Barbz on Facebook, most of the groups were private. I decided to try to join one and before I am able to be accepted I had to agree to the terms and conditions of the group. The terms included a statement that made me agree to never slander Onika Tanya Maraj (Nicki Minaj) in the group. Although my request may never be accepted I thought the agreement issued by the group admin was worthy of mention.
Nicki's fan base has been criticized by many for their relentless loyalty and obsessive protectiveness of Nicki and the way that people talk about her. As I continued my research I found another youtube video with a different perspective titled "The Barbz are so Demonic" where the creator, Mycah J, calls out the Barbz violent tendencies and consistent bullying of those on Twitter who talk down on Nicki in any way. The Barbz are known to slide into DMs (direct messages) and threaten people for speaking negatively about their Queen which I think is a little cult-like. Mycah mentions that the Barbz seem to forget people have the right to freedom of speech and that includes freedom to dislike Nicki Minaj and her music. The fanbase's loyalty can be positive in some ways but it seems like their passion has grown into something more toxic and stan-like that creates too much turmoil within the fanbase itself as we heard in the previous Twitter space video of them screaming at one another.
Works Cited
Allison Filice. "The Barbz offer Minaj support, but they insulate her from reality, influencing her process the way that critics cannot." Found, The New Yorker, 10 March 2021, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/03/nicki-minajs-dark-bargain-with-her-fans.
"barbz being the funniest fans ever." Youtube, uploaded by rougevelvet, 11 Mar. 2020, https://youtu.be/IvwtwEx2vy4.
@GenZforNicki. "Yup, yup it's a new era for stan tweet [][] #themoistplace #themoistspace." Twitter, 10 Mar. 2021, 12:50AM., https://twitter.com/GenZforNicki/status/1369526048203960320.
@onikapickles. "barbz addressing how many obstacles Nicki Minaj faces as a black woman in the industry #themoistplace." Twitter, 10 Mar. 2021, 12:14AM., https://twitter.com/onikapickles/status/1369516995734085632.
"Nicki Minaj invited fans on stage + Whip It (Brussels, Belgium - The Pink Print Tour, Palais 12)" Youtube, uploaded by Feimlive, 22, Mar. 2015., https://youtu.be/5bZZW0KO69s
"The Barbz are so Demonic." Youtube, uploaded by Mycah J, 25 Jun. 2020., https://youtu.be/iSZnWBFo9uI.
Unkown. "The Barbz." Found, Barbz misc., Fandom.com. 10 March 2021, https://nickiminaj.fandom.com/wiki/Barbz.
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