Watch Nicki Minaj’s Bondage-Filled ‘Only’ Video With Drake, Lil Wayne, Chris Brown
With the arrival of Nicki Minaj‘s new LP The Pinkprint just days away, the rapper has shared the music video for her all-star single “Only,” featuring Drake, Lil Wayne and Chris Brown. The video features a heavy dose of bondage equipment, risqué wardrobes, blood lust and a torture porn motif, yet it’s still less controversial than The Pinkprint single’s lyric video (or “Anaconda” for that matter).
In the Hannah Lux Davis-directed video, muscular men are abducted and taken to Minaj’s dominatrix lair, where Drake and Lil Wayne rap about how they’ve never slept with Minaj. Brown, wearing spooky colored contact lenses and grills, sings the chorus from a different location, since it probably would have been unwise for him to be in the company of Minaj’s other featured guests.
The good news is that the dark “Only” music video was not modeled after its incendiary lyrics video. After the Leni Riefenstahl-inspired “Only” lyric video premiered, the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement, “Nicki Minaj‘s new video disturbingly evokes Third Reich propaganda and constitutes a new low for pop culture’s exploitation of Nazi symbolism.”
Minaj tweeted that the “Only” lyric video was inspired by Sin City and Metalocalypse. “I didn’t come up with the concept, but I’m very sorry and take full responsibility if it has offended anyone,” Minaj said. “I’d never condone Nazism in my art.” However, the “Only” lyric video’s director Jeffrey Osborne brazenly admitted, “First, I’m not apologizing for my work, nor will I dodge the immediate question. The flags, armbands, and gas mask (and perhaps my use of symmetry?) are all representative of Nazis.”
The Pinkprint is out on December 15th.