Nicki Minaj Jokingly Said She'd 'Slap the Shit' Out of a Reporter

On Monday, the rapper made an extremely rare appearance at the 2022 Met Gala in an all-black Burberry bustier gown, complete with plenty of feathers, leather leggings and a baseball cap. And while the look has definitely garnered a fair amount of attention, some fans have been more focused on a brief interaction between Minaj and an unidentified reporter, who supposedly figured out she was making a return to fashion's biggest night after a four year absence.

“Are you the man that leaked that I was gonna be here? It was you," Minaj can be heard saying in videos from the event, before adding that she was "about to come up to you and slap the shit out of you.”

Despite sounding pretty serious, fan consensus is that Minaj was joking, seeing as how she can be seen giggling a little with a big smile on her face at the end. That said, Barbz were also just excited to finally see her back, especially since the last time she appeared at the event was in 2019 for the "Camp" themed Gala, which she showed up to in a bubblegum pink Prabal Gurung number.

She’s such a menace. The giggle at the end 😭 #MetGala pic.twitter.com/9TVnA76bsJ

— bored (@boredowntw) May 3, 2022

Notably though, the star was missing from last year's gathering due to the Gala's coronavirus restrictions. At the time, she told fans that she didn't want to "risk" her newborn son's health by attending, explaining that she had contracted COVID-19 after a video shoot and rehearsals for her planned VMAs performance.

"Do u know what it is not to be able to kiss or hold your tiny baby for over a week? A baby who is only used to his mama?," she wrote. However, she also went on to say that they "want you to get vaccinated for the Met" and if she got vaxxed, it wouldn't be for the Met, especially since she hadn't "done enough research" on the vaccine yet.

Minaj later added that Drake still caught the virus after getting the vaccine before making controversial statements about her cousin's friend becoming "impotent" after receiving the vaccine, despite numerous health officials rebuking her claims.

Photo via Getty / Mike Coppola