The other day I asked on Twitter for your thoughts about Nicki Minaj, and boy did I ever get them. A ton of thoughtful and animated responses both pro and con. I even got a response via DM from one of my favorite female emcees, Invincible, so I’m posting her thoughts here along with a sampling of yours. You can hear our NPR segment on Nicki here, or the longer podcast version here.
Invincible (@invincibleDET): “I think she’s hyper-criticized because she’s the ONLY female/out emcee on major media so people expect her to represent all women and/or out emcees, and of course she doesn’t. That’s like if the only male straight emcee on major media was ODB (RIP) and people never heard the lyricism of the rest of the Wu unless they took the ferry to Staten Island and sought them out. The real issue is needing a wider spectrum of female and out emcees represented and included on a broader scale. That certainly does not mean every female or out emcee seeks the level of fame or corporate sponsorship she has, we all define success differently. At the same time there needs to be more support and attention given to a diversity of voices.”
Other responses:
@msemilylinn: Said it before, I’ll say it again: Nicki Minaj makes me want to stab someone in the eyeball.
@itsthereal Love her or hate her, she’s something different in hip-hop. Hopefully she opens the door to women we’d actually listen to.
@BrotherAliMpls: She’s actually got a lot of presence on the mic. Corny lines but that’s what her audience likes. (That rhymed. I do that.)
@Ngongang she is high fructose corn syrup
@_soulkhan: Nicki: “All women should feel empowered to be who they are (please disregard my extensive plastic surgery, though).” Furthermore, while animated, she is identical to everyone else’s in Young Money in terms of structure and delivery.
@spanphly: I’m that purist, backpacker living in the late 90’s and I think Nicki Minaj is dope!
@RaeSanni: i’m hoping you’ll join me in my unabashed support of Nicki! i find her barbie obsession/fetishization of her asian ancestry to be more troubling than her sexuality. i suspect a lot of the criticism of her is based on what i call “girl hate.” wmn who’ve accepted the ho/housewife dichotomy & are offended/threatened by women who reject the patriarchal constraints or embrace being a “ho.” girl hate is prevalent in hip-hop.
Note: There were many other answers I wanted to post but twitter’s not letting me search that far back. Greatly appreciated all your responses though!
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Good post, Jay. I just wanted to add an important addendum, though. Although I noted that Nicki wants women to be themselves while also being a virtual cyborg at this point, I acknowledge that my perspective is still a male one in a male dominated world and industry. Nicki shouldn’t be seriously demonized for anything but being a corny lyricist.
Apparently mediocre talent, massive plastic surgery, and hoochie clothes are only acceptable when you’re straight. If you’re a lesbian that’s totally outrageous!
I’d respect her more if she’d come in trying to be what she is now. But you can’t just slap on some futuristic shit and then try to play that role. Of course so many artists (cough-gaga) do this – create some persona to make a career, that it might as well not even be a strike against her. I like some of her lines, but it gets sickening when she gets any more than just buzz of the moment hype. Some of Jean Grae’s single lines>Nicki’s whole career to this date and a year from tomorrow.
It’s cute that the NPR lady was trying really hard to see something meaningful in Nicki Minaj’s approach…but it’s completely not realistic. Maybe I don’t see something but…it just seems like a deliberate marketing scheme and the girl will do anything to “make it” so she resorts to this. There is no master plan, just a girl who will do anything (including rapping badly with horrible accents) to succeed. The epitome of what I hate…exploitation of Hip-Hop for personal gain. She is bringing nothing of value to Hip-Hop.
I actually also twitter replied about Nicki. I think that there is a line between expressing yourself as a female emcee/”independent woman” (my goodness, I hate the phrase) and using your sexuality and ditzy caricature to promote who you are. I recently tweeted about an interview that she did (something I stumbled upon online that originally aired on BET) and she acknowledged that she had recently discovered the people listening to her records were 12-15 year olds and she was shocked. She said that she wanted to change it up now that she is actually in the game, but that she wasn’t going to work on the vulgarity or explicit content of her rhymes. Which, okay. Fine. I don’t think the problem is so much with her being explicit; anybody can grab their fifteen minutes. Majorly, my problem with her is the fact that she knows who her audience is (though, unwilling to admit that this nods to her limited vocabulary and simple rhyme scheme) and she has an army of clones who aren’t interested in actually knowing the difference between that looney tunes BS and real life. I want to tear my hair out every time I see a girl with a pink track and her bra hanging out. I’ve written about her in quite a few posts on my blog — even one where my 11 year old female cousin denounces Nicki for being fake and unoriginal seen here: http://otherwomynism.blogspot.com/2010/03/fresh-air.html
Also, I re-read my comment and it sounded as though I was for the limitations of female self-expression, which I’m not. Not at all…huge women’s rights activist here as a woman who believes that people do what they do. However, “self-expression” is different from mimicking someone who seems to have no concept of who she is (especially in taking on a “ditzy white girl” persona and pushing people toward harajuku culture). It’s self expression when it’s original. It’s someone else’s expression when you’re putting on a fake accent and playing dumb because you think it’s attractive. There was a video on youtube a while ago of a girl who was basically serious about her new “barbie/fly girl” persona, a la Nicki Minaj. There are also online Nicki look-alike contests. It’s sick.
I think women myself included are upset by the fact Nicki Minaj represents female hip hop artists. This is no diversity and it appears to be there can be only one visible female MC at a time in today’s music. I don’t want to devote my entire comment hating on her. She has charisma I’ll give her that but I can’t help but think whenever I hear her or see her, “here’s a MC with the potential to make really good music but chose monetary success over lyrical success.” What’s worse is that I see a lot of young girls and sadly older women who try to defend her gimmick by saying it’s new and original. I am all for women being free to express themselves as they please, but frankly Nicki Minaj’s claim to fame is the same reason why a lot of female MC’s aren’t taken seriously. In the 80’s and 90’s there was diversity among female MC’s. Today the 2010’s are slowly turning into a war among female rappers for a title that is not worthy of their skills and talent. I think female fans of hip hop deserve more. For me personally, I feel as if MC’s like Invincible and Jean Grae deserve as much promotion and radio play as Nicki Minaj.
I like Nicki Minaj. I think it’s because I view this all as entertainment. Either you’re entertained, or you aren’t. If you aren’t entertained, find a different song to listen to. Clearly, she’s not the best emcee or female emcee for that matter. Clearly she SHOULD NOT be a role model for anyone’s child. But I think she’s funny, and it’s corny, and I like it. Like Invincible said, she doesn’t represent all female emcees, and she shouldn’t be viewed as such.
i disagree with Invincible. People aren’t criticizing Nikki because she’s a woman, they are criticizing her because some feel her work leaves little to be desired.