--- title: Nicki Minaj Calls Out Cultural Appropriation at NYFW description: Nicki Minaj took the fashion industry to task for cultural appropriation when she performed at Phillip Plein's SS18 show at NYFW. canonical: https://time.com/4936550/nicki-minaj-on-cultural-appropriation-nyfw/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-09-11T21:25:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:47:09.072Z og:title: Nicki Minaj Calls Out Cultural Appropriation at NYFW og:description: "Designers get really big and really rich off of our culture" og:url: https://time.com/4936550/nicki-minaj-on-cultural-appropriation-nyfw/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ac9bef03f45e423/6988dd43196cf40240041df9/nicki-minaj-phillip-plein-nyfw.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: 2017 Harper's Bazaar Icons og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Nicki Minaj Calls Out Cultural Appropriation at NYFW twitter:description: "Designers get really big and really rich off of our culture" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ac9bef03f45e423/6988dd43196cf40240041df9/nicki-minaj-phillip-plein-nyfw.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Nicki Minaj Calls Out Designers For Cultural Appropriation During Fashion Week > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Sep 11, 2017 9:25 PM UTC  NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 08: Nicki Minaj attends the 2017 Harper ICONS party at The Plaza Hotel on September 8, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic) NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 08: Nicki Minaj attends the 2017 Harper ICONS party at The Plaza Hotel on September 8, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic) Taylor Hill—FilmMagic  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Sep 11, 2017 9:25 PM UTC While the [fashion industry has made more of an effort towards inclusion](http://time.com/4579222/iman-bethann-mentorship/) in recent years, that doesn’t mean that there still isn’t ample room for improvement, a sentiment that was shared candidly by [Nicki Minaj ](http://time.com/4684737/nicki-minaj-remy-ma-rap-feud/)during Phillip Plein’s Spring/Summer 2018 runway show on Saturday night at [New York Fashion Week.](http://time.com/4930562/gloria-steinem-huma-abedin-nyfw-prabal-gurung/) The “[No Frauds](http://time.com/4698071/nicki-minaj-remy-ma-diss-track/)” rapper, who performed at the after-party for Plein, took designers and the industry at whole to task for [benefitting from black culture without valuing or including the communities where it originated](http://motto.time.com/4501037/cultural-appropriation-marc-jacobs-dreadlocks/). “Thank you, Philipp Plein, for including our culture,” Minaj said. “Designers get really big and really rich off of our culture, and then you don’t see a motherf–ker that look anything like us in the front row half the time. So let’s make some noise for Philipp Plein tonight.” Along with Minaj, Future, Rae Sremmurd, Yo Gotti, and 21 Savage, also performed at the runway show that opened with a Dita Von Teese striptease and ended with the dancing talents of “Fade” star and Kanye protegeé Teyana Taylor. This isn’t the first time that Plein’s show has generated buzz off-the-runway either; at his show last season, tongues wagged when [Whoopi Goldberg offered to sit nest to Tiffany Trump after editors refused](http://motto.time.com/4673173/whoopi-goldberg-tiffany-trump-nyfw/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4936550/nicki-minaj-on-cultural-appropriation-nyfw/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4936550/nicki-minaj-on-cultural-appropriation-nyfw/"},"headline":"Nicki Minaj Calls Out Designers For Cultural Appropriation During Fashion Week","datePublished":"2017-09-11T21:25:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:47:09.072Z","description":"\"Designers get really big and really rich off of our culture\"","url":"https://time.com/4936550/nicki-minaj-on-cultural-appropriation-nyfw/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","fashion","Fashion Week","Nicki Minaj"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ac9bef03f45e423/6988dd43196cf40240041df9/nicki-minaj-phillip-plein-nyfw.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ac9bef03f45e423/6988dd43196cf40240041df9/nicki-minaj-phillip-plein-nyfw.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2017 Harper's Bazaar Icons","caption":"2017 Harper's Bazaar Icons","creditText":"Taylor Hill—FilmMagic","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4936550/nicki-minaj-on-cultural-appropriation-nyfw/","name":"Nicki Minaj Calls Out Designers For Cultural Appropriation During Fashion Week"}}]}] ```