In today’s episode of “When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong,” Verizon Wireless learned the hard way that you don’t come for Nicki Minaj unless she sends for you.
It all started when Minaj allegedly uploaded a photo to her Twitter account Sunday night that showed her using Verizon as her cellular network, or at least that is what one Twitter user thought.
So on Monday, that person uploaded a screenshot of the tweet side by side with a screenshot of Minaj’s T-Mobile ad with the caption, “Nicki Minaj promotes T-Mobile but uses Verizon.”
Minaj does do commercials for T-Mobile, so if she truly uses Verizon, that would be a juicy bit of gossip for the timeline. And it didn't take long for the tweet to go viral.
Verizon caught wind of the tweet and figured it would be cute to subtweet Minaj by way of T-Mobile on Tuesday with a link to the tweet and the caption, “T-Mo, what’s good?”
Now, considering that Verizon riffed off of Minaj’s now infamous callout of Miley Cyrus, you would think the company would have a) checked its sources, b) verified that Minaj actually uses Verizon and c) had a prayer meeting before deciding to come for “Pink Friday” boss. Unfortunately for Verizon, it did none of the above and sent the tweet out anyway, likely expecting cheers.
Minaj saw Verizon’s tweet, and of course she had to clap back with the real deal:
“Ummm congratulations @Verizon u played yaself. It’s a screen shot from my camera man’s phone. @TMobile for life,” she tweeted Wednesday, adding an extra dig about unlimited data via hashtag.
Did someone turn out the lights? It definitely got a little shady in here. Poor Verizon. They tried it. They failed, but they definitely tried it.
To add insult to injury, T-Mobile ended up getting the last laugh. After seeing Minaj’s tweet, a fan tweeted, “Queeen no you did not,” to which T-Mobile’s verified account replied, “Oh yes, our #MagentaQueen just did!”
Welp, Verizon. Can you hear me now? What’s good?
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Monique Judge is a freelance journalist in Los Angeles. Follow her on Twitter.