Was singer Nicki Minaj found dead from a Percocet overdose after a fight with Cardi B at a fashion show? No, that's not true: the fight happened but the drug overdose was made up by someone who thought it would be funny to upload a death hoax to a prank website that uses a domain name to confuse people into thinking it is The New York Times. It is not real.
The story originated from an article published on thenewyorktimes.company (not the real nytimes.com) on September 9, 2018 titled "Nicki Minaj found dead after fashion show fight " (archived here) which opened:
Rapper nicki Minaj was found dead after talking about artist Cardi b and intenet trolling, found in her condo from Percocet overdose
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail so they may have tought it was real if they didn't click it:
Nicki Minaj found dead after fashion show fight
Rapper nicki Minaj was found dead after talking about artist Cardi b and intenet trolling, found in her condo from Percocet overdose
The site is part of a network of prank websites centered around thefakenewsgenerator.com that allow anyone to create a realistic looking fake news article. The network offers a selection of misleading domain names that can be used to make it look like an article came from real news websites such as CBS News, Associated Press or The New York Times. Each hoax article comes with following disclaimer at the top of the page:
You clicked this fake news story. Now make your own!
