- [Josef] If you're like me,
and you spend way too much time on Twitter,
then you've probably encountered the people
that unofficially rule over the site.
Of course, I'm talking about the Twitter stans
and if you don't know what a stan is
the dictionary describes a stan
as an excessively, enthusiastic and devoted fan.
Stan groups rule over Twitter
like a conquering army with the ability to create trends,
sell out tickets, and shut down critics.
Some famous stan groups include the Swifties,
the K-pop stans like BTS Army, and the Beyhive.
But the group I wanna talk about are the Barbz,
the name given to the super fans of Nicki Minaj.
Do you call yourself a Barb?
- Yeah, I do, yeah, yeah, I do.
- So in order to get a better understanding of stan culture,
I met some of the Barbz
behind popular Nicki Minaj Twitter accounts.
- I feel like Nicki Minaj, in a way, she is a reflection
of my personality and with this being said,
if you don't (bleep) with her,
you probably don't mess with me,
so you gotta deuce.
- The Barbz have a reputation for being fiery online,
but I wanted to see if there's more to being
a Barb than meets the eye.
(upbeat music)
The word stan is said to be a mashup
of the word stalker and fan.
Some say the term was coined by Eminem,
who released the track "Stan" in 2000.
The song tells the story of an obsessive fan
who turns violent all because
Eminem didn't reply back to his fanmail.
Eminem's song is really disturbing
and his fictional character is not representative
of real life stans.
Several years after the song's release,
the term started spreading on to online spaces and by 2010,
most stan communities were on Twitter.
Here's the thing, I'm a fan of many celebrities
and I like to keep up with what they're doing,
but does that make me a stan?
Turns out, no, there's a difference
between being a fan and a stan.
Meet Cia, an aspiring Forensic Nurse,
who proudly reps Nicki.
- [Cia] I'm gonna put it like this,
there are like levels to it because I feel like you can be
like a Nicki fan, which is like, you know,
she drops like music.
Its kind of mainstream.
You'll listen to it.
You'll vibe for a little bit,
and then there's a barb.
♪ My backs to them ♪
♪ Yep, the queen's back, what's happenin'? ♪
- [Cia] It becomes like engaging with the music
like what project does this person have coming out?
- Yeah. - [Cia] And some people use
stan culture as their version of an escape of reality.
'Cause you can go online, you can meet people
who are similar interests with you.
- [Josef] But the press surrounding stan groups is not
all positive and media have even referred to stan culture
as the dark side of social media.
- [Cia] I think most people from the outside looking in tend
to always see the negative in something.
They don't usually see the community
that gets built around this person.
- [Josef] While working on this episode,
friends and colleagues of mine warned me
not to mess with the Barbz.
They told me the Barbz will come after me
if I'm not careful.
- [Cia] Every time going in, you're gonna
hear the Barbz did this,
the Barbz did that, the Barbz exposed this number,
the Barbz got this account, like, removed
from Twitter or Instagram.
That's the crazy things
that you hear and I'm not denying that it happened.
It does happen.
There are people like that in the world,
doesn't matter if you're in stan culture
or just a regular person, this happens,
but I think people forget that music
and an artist becomes a hobby for some people.
- Okay, real quick, serious, serious,
serious comment real quick.
- Meet Nate, a Barb who often interacts with Nicki,
directly through the stan Twitter Spaces he orbits.
- [Nate] I'm not gonna hold you.
I have addiction to Twitter.
I really do have addiction.
- [Josef] Because Nate is such an active Nicki stan,
I asked him what the etiquette is for being a Barb.
- You cannot, you cannot, you cannot be stanning people
that Nicki Minaj, like you cannot stan her ops.
You have to be loyal to the queen.
You have to be loyal.
Like they do not like it
when you stan another artist that's in a
feud with her right now.
If you really gonna become a Barb
and have your Barb card,
you have to start from her discovery
when she first started, until she, until she's present now.
You know, so like "Beam me up Scotty".
You know, "Sucka Free".
You know, if you wanna be a Barb
listen to her mixtapes
first, watch her old interviews.
Then you come up.
(upbeat music)
- [Josef] Now that I've learned about Barb etiquette
I decided it's time for me to meet some Barbz in person.
A venue in Brooklyn has been
hosting Nicki Minaj themed parties,
so I decided to go and check it out.
This is Flwrshrk, a DJ in New York who has been inspired
by Nicki's music and spins her songs
for beloved fans at this recurring party.
- She literally, like, paved the way
for all of these artists, these new rappers.
Also there wasn't many women doing it
at the time doing it so well.
And, like, actually getting the accolades that she did.
- What does it mean to be a Barb?
- To like have a deep, deep love for Nicki.
- Yeah.
- The fact that Nicki Minaj has never won a Grammy.
You know, you have to like
if they're not gonna give it to her
you have to prove why she deserves it.
You have to go on the floor,
you have to sing the hardest bars.
- [Josef]
Why do you think the Barbz
are so present on Twitter?
- Her engagement with her fans is why she has
like a huge fan base on Twitter.
Literally, you talk to her like a regular person.
She talks to them like regular people.
- Another common misconception about Stan culture is
that the fans are
in one-sided of relationships with their favorite celebrity.
But that's not entirely true.
Nicki is invested in her Barbz
and has found ways to connect with them and support them.
- Like how Nicki Minaj surprised her Barbz
by joining in on the streaming parties.
She's also helped pay off nearly 40 Barbz' student loans.
And according to receipts,
eight of those loans totaled over $18,000.
- [Nate] People always ask, like, like why
do these Barbz go hard?
There are a reason why, cause it's the way we
We really have a personal connection with her.
If you don't know, just know I had a passing in my family
and with this being said, you know,
she sent me this beautiful message on my dad.
Yeah. In the morning.
"Just sending you all my love and condolences.
Focus on love.
Losing a parent feels so scary and painful.
Just know that I think of the world of you.
And I know both of your parents were proud of you
no matter what you guys went through."
And she put a little unicorn emoji.
- [Cia] I tweeted the most random thing
about a Caribbean song that she did.
She laughed at it, retweeted it, like it, and followed me.
And I was like.
- [Josef] For some, it's hard to understand
why people become stans of celebrities.
But after asking people why they became a Barb,
many have told me that it's because it's like a family.
Cia even told me about a close friendship
she made with another Barb she met over Twitter.
He even invited her over
for Thanksgiving to meet his family last year.
- And you know, we met for like the first time.
So it was like a lot of hugging.
And we FaceTimed all of our friends
from our group chat, like, oh my God, look who I met.
And we're just all like having fun.
- It was cool. We had a good time.
I jokingly introduced you as my girlfriend to people.
My family, when you came in the house.
And they were like why you ain't say nothing about no girl?
I was like, I was like, relax.
I was just joking.
Like I was just joking.
- For many, stan culture is about belonging.
Fandoms may start with a celebrity,
but what ties them together are their shared affinities
not just with the celebrity, but also each other.
- And now it becomes more than just Nicki Minaj.
It becomes, I meet a friend with this person because of her
so I'm grateful for that connection.
- Stan culture is not a completely new thing either.
From the screamers of Beatlemania
to the cosplayers at Star Wars premieres,
being a dedicated super fan has been around for a long time.
The difference today is the way these communities
use the internet to work together.
- The Barbz definitely set like a, a standard of like
of like fan bases and how they
even go hard to promote Nicki.
So they definitely on it
and the streaming parties, listening parties.
- Okay. You know what, Nicki streaming, you gonna do this.
Okay, QC You do this, Nate do that.
- There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes.
So like there are these really big, like Instagram
and Twitter Barb accounts that have like 10K, 20K, 30K
and they like host rooms
or they'll have group chats to say like, okay
we wanna get this trending.
So here's how we're gonna go about it.
We're gonna do TikTok videos dedicated to this.
Like, it may seem like it's just the Barbz, like, you know
just doing stuff, but it's very strategic.
And there are lot, I feel like a lot
of these people should work for like the FBI or something.
- Even the famous rapper, Lil NAS X got his start
on Twitter as a Nicki stan account called @NasMaraj.
His Barb account gained almost 150,000 followers long
before he even became famous.
- I know him as @NasMaraj on Twitter.
Okay. That's how I know him as.
I know him as a troll.
- In the end, I don't see much difference
between the people becoming super fans
of pop stars and rappers
and the people that become super fans of sports players.
- I have a friend that has a certain quarterback's
jersey hanging in his apartment,
but we don't call him a stan.
I'm certain more stan communities will form
around new celebrities.
And maybe those communities will be able to learn a thing
or two from the Barbz that came before them.