Shannon Sharpe has apologized to Nicki Minaj after the rapper took a shot at him in her new song, mistakenly thinking he had mocked her on social media.
Her ‘Banned from No’ remix with Lil Wayne hit No. 1 on itunes this week. One line in the song – ‘If I send a pic of Shannon, you ain’t that sharp’ – appeared to take aim the former NFL player, who in April was accused of rape in a lawsuit. He denies the allegations.
Minaj seemed to have taken an issue with Sharpe when, in February 2024 on X, a fan told Sharp that ‘Nicki’ said she wanted to be on his podcast.
‘Nicki who?’ Sharpe replied. He has since explained that he thought Nicki meant Nikki Haley as he had recently discussed her on his show. The fan actually meant Minaj, who had spoken about Sharpe’s podcast in an interview.
But the initial remark obvioulsy didn’t go down well with Minaj, who wrote on X: ‘If I send a pic of Shannon, you ain’t that sharp!!!! You thought I forgot that ‘Nicki who’ s*** you did?’
A follower then sent her a video of Sharpe explaining the misunderstanding, where his co-host Chad ‘Ochocinco’ Johnson said he was going to text Minaj and tell her what really happened.
Nicki Minaj took a shot at Shannon Sharpe in her popular new song ‘Banned from No’
Sharpe apologized for the misunderstanding that the rapper thought was him mocking her
It seems that message might have not been sent, judging by Minaj’s seemingly surprised reaction on X to one of her followers telling her Sharpe was sorry.
‘LOL – well we got a funny lil rap bar out of it,’ Minaj wrote. ‘Thank you, Shannon b/c I was like ‘what I done did now?’ You never cleared it up to the Barbz so I had to avenge them.’
In the segment tweeted to Minaj, Sharpe explained: ‘I used to go back and forth with people. I was talking about Nikki Haley. Nikki Haley said it’s really great for everybody of black America, and I was like … ‘When has it ever been great?’
‘Nicki, I was not trying to be disrespectful. Of course I know who you are. I would be remiss to say that I thought you knew who I was, or that you knew anything about ‘Club Shay Shay.’ I’m not that arrogant.
‘Nicki, I apologize. I meant no disrespect. You’ll always have an open invitation if you ever want to come sit down and have a conversation.
‘Even if you just want to have a private conversation on the phone or something. It won’t go any further between you and I.’
Sharpe stepped away from his duties as an ESPN host on its ‘First Take’ show as backlash following the rape lawsuit intensified.
‘At this juncture I am electing to step aside temporarily from my ESPN duties,’ Sharpe said in a statement back in April.
Sharpe has stepped away from duties with ESPN due to a rape allegation, which he denies
‘I will be devoting this time to my family, and responding and dealing with these false and disruptive allegations set against me. I plan to return to ESPN at the start of the NFL preseason.’
ESPN also issued a statement, saying: ‘This is a serious situation, and we agree with Shannon’s decision to step away.’
There has been no update since on Sharpe’s ESPN status but the first game of the NFL preseason is July 31.
