In the video, the woman stood on a Miami street alone with a cigarette on her hand as she yelled at Nicki, "I don't need your so-called help!" The raptress, who filmed the entire thing from her car, then replied, "What'd you say? Miss... Come here!" Nicki and some people in the car could be heard laughing as the woman walked away while still yelling at her. "Miss, you look nice... Can we talk?" the Young Money first lady kept asking the woman.
After the video was shared along with a laughing emoji in the caption, Nicki's Instagram account was flooded with negative comments from fans. They slammed the "Anaconda" rapper for mocking the mentally ill woman, branding her insensitive.
"Nicki was f**king wrong for laughing at the lady. She was being mean and fake. Why tell the lady she looked nice?" one commenter wrote. "This is so wrong!! If i were u delete this video..know the history of a person before u post an offending video..not cool..u are already getting heated and receiving a lot of backlash..this is an act of ignorance!! RESPECT!!" said another.
Social media users weren't the only ones who found the video offensive. According to TMZ, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI-Miami) has also publicly called out Nicki for her action, calling it invasion of the woman's privacy and an act of dehumanization.
The organization also accused Nicki of using her fame to negatively influence her fans, including around 70 million people following her on Instagram. "Nobody would make fun of a cancer patient, and mental illness is an illness like any other," a NAMI spokesperson said.