Is this Nicki Minaj before Photoshop?
IS this what Nicki Minaj looked like on the cover of her new single before some heavy Photoshop editing?
An image is circulating online purporting to show the 31-year-old’s Anaconda artwork before and after retouching.
The racy cover, in which the curvaceous singer is posing suggestively and wearing blue sneakers, a G-string and not much else, was released last week.
ANACONDA artwork launches a slew of hilarious, raunchy memes
It quickly went viral and saw her trending worldwide on Twitter, generating significant buzz ahead of the track’s release next Monday.
Now fans are questioning how much image manipulation took place, after a side-by-side comparison did the rounds on social media overnight.
The before image, which website MediaTakeOut.com claimed to have obtained, shows Minaj with a darker complexion and skin folds around her stomach.
But is all what it seems?
Some fans have taken to the web with theories of their own, that someone maliciously Photoshopped the Photoshop to make it look far more manipulated than it is.
Seriously?
They might be on to something — the before image is very blurry and the website hasn’t elaborated on where it acquired the image.
Minaj’s debut studio album, Pink Friday, peaked at number one on the US charts in 2010 and her hit Super Bass quickly became a club favourite.
She’s known for her alter egos — a set of ‘characters’ she morphs into depending on her mood — and her very public feuds with everyone from pop diva Mariah Carey to Australian rapper Iggy Azalia.