Rapper Nicki Minaj Released From Police Custody, Manchester Concert Cancelled

US rapper Nicki Minaj arrives for the 2024 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on May 6, 2024. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

Grammy-winning rapper Nicki Minaj was released from police custody hours after being detained at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport for allegedly “carrying drugs” on Saturday.

“We have just released a 41-year-old American woman whom we arrested this afternoon at Schiphol on suspicion of exporting soft drugs. The suspect was fined and can continue her journey,” according to an update on X posted by Dutch Police.

The incident also prompted the cancellation of her scheduled performance in Manchester, England.

The rapper’s live footage on her Instagram account captured the moment the artist was detained by an Amsterdam police officer after arriving for a flight at the airport. She was on her way to the next stop of her Pink Friday 2 World Tour when she was stopped by authorities. The video showed her interaction with the officer as he tried to get her into the police van. She appeared reluctant to get into the vehicle and denied the claims she was in possession of drugs, the video showed.

“I’m not carrying drugs … I’m not going in there. I need a lawyer present now,” the rapper told the officer.

The 41-year-old rapper continued to refuse to get into the police vehicle until she obtained legal representation. She also demanded the address of the police precinct saying she had “no idea” where she would be taken.

“We’ll get you to your show,” the officer told her.

“You’re talking about my show? What about it?” she responded.

The footage captured her eventually getting into the police van.

In a separate video, she was inside the vehicle while speaking to a man more about the incident and searching her bags.

“Why didn’t you guys search it before they went on the plane?” she asked him.

The arrest comes after she posted a series of lengthy X posts claiming that the Amsterdam airport security was trying to “sabotage” her world tour.

“They took my luggage & when I asked where it is, they said it’s on the plane. It couldn’t have been, I just pulled up. She also added that ”this is how they plant things on your luggage.”

In another post, she said “they found weed” and took bags without her consent.

She noted that “weed is legal” in Amsterdam in a separate post.

“Now they said I have to go 5 mins away to make a statement about my security to the police precinct,” she said on her last update before going silent on social media for several hours.

Fans were already lining up for her show at the Manchester Co-op Live arena when Live Nation UK announced her concert was “postponed.”

“Despite Nicki’s best efforts to explore every possible avenue to make tonight’s show happen, the events of today have made it impossible,” the promoters said in a statement.

Tickets to her show will remain valid and her performance will be rescheduled, according to the concert promoters.