Nicki Minaj Puts Malcolm X, N-word, on Single Cover Art, Later Removes

Singer Nicki Minaj sure got people’s attention by putting the visage of Malcolm X on the cover of her latest single Lookin A** N*gga out via her social media network. The civil rights icon is seen holding an M1 Carbine in the grainy artwork.

If that didn’t stir up enough emotions, the picture also features the N-word. Cue the outrage.

Say what you will about his days as Detroit Redhustling on the streets of Harlem, there is nothing N-word like about Malcolm X,” Alvin Aqua Blance writes at HipHopWired. “To equate a man that literally died for his cause — the advancement of human rights for people of color — is just wrong on multiple levels.

A Change.org petition quickly sprang up asking for the singer to remove the image.

Thanks to the speed of social media, the message apparently got through. Minaj pulled the offending image, according to ContactMusic.com.