Giuseppe, what’s good? Nicki Minaj took to Twitter on Friday, February 3, to put shoe designer Giuseppe Zanotti on blast for allegedly declining her call despite previously using her name on a sneaker collection.
“This is wonderful. #GiuseppeZanotti seems to think it's ok to name his sneakers after me but his PR says they won't take our call,” the “Black Barbies” rapper, 34, wrote to her 20.7 million followers. “Lol.”
The 59-year-old shoe designer has previously teamed up with celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Zayn Malik and Kanye West for limited-time capsule collections. But according to Minaj, Zanotti is not interested in working with the hip-hop star in that capacity.
"I met #GiuseppeZanotti years ago," she continued. "At which time, he told me I inspired him to design a sneaker in my honor. Wore them on the cover of Cosmo. … Recently when he gave other artists capsule collections, my agency reached out and was told they're not taking our call. Just go on google, you'll see all the different pairs he's named after me. Lil black girl can inspire u but ain't worth a collection my n-g?”
Zanotti uses the distinctive spelling of Minaj’s first name on several variants of a leather sneaker which retail for hundreds of dollars. In a subsequent post, the female MC slammed the Italian fashion guru for what she believes to be “racism” and “disrespect.”
“#RunMeMyCHECK #GiuseppeWhatsGood I got time today. barbz trend this cuz he gon learn today,” she added. “The racism & disrespect won't b tolerated.”
In another tweet, Minaj expressed that she wasn’t concerned about money, but would simply like Zanotti to show her some respect. “Don't care about the money. It's just the disrespect,” she wrote. “You're not taking MY call? Lol. Give some money to charity in my name or smthn."
Minaj also shared screen shots of the “Nicki” sneaker on Zanotti’s website, accompanied by a very heated caption on Instagram. “Dear @giuseppezanottidesign#RunMeMyCHECK your PR must've fell & bumped their head when they told my agency they weren't discussing anything with us,” she fumed. “I'm giving you 24 hours. 😊 #GiuseppeWhatsGood”
Later, she tweeted that Giuseppe Zanotti had removed all shoes with her name from the company's site. "Well that's a start," Minaj wrote. "Guess they taking calls now… 😊🎀"
Not long after Minaj took aim at the shoe designer via social media, the hashtag #GiuseppeWhatsGood started trending on Twitter. Zanotti has yet to publicly respond to the “Starships” singer.
