You The Boss: In Defence Of Nicki Minaj

The mega-buttocked 26 year old guests on the new Rick Ross single You The Boss - here's why she has revived the role of the female rapper...

Last year Nicki Minaj was one of the most Googled people in the world but you probably still don’t really know who she is. For people following her early career as a fairly generic fem-cee with a nasal NYC twang, it feels as if Minaj went from discount weaves to a turbo Barbie, commanding Lady GaGa levels of fame, in about a week. The hip-hop world created a credible buzz around her, the bevvy of mixtapes under her belt had artists clambering to collaborate before a debut album was even in the making. But as soon as she signed to Cash Money records in 2009 (say what you see guys, clue is in the title) the finely tuned hype campaign and evolution from hoodrat to pop star which followed, has made it pretty clear that making a shit ton of cash was always high priority for her.

Her constant image changing has made her perfect blog fodder for a generation of teenagers with mass attention deficit disorder, and she does cut an eye-popping figure. Cartoon curves with an arse sturdier than a JCB lorry and wig changes more frequent than most change their pants. Love or hate the persona she’s created for herself, having everyone from tweens to Vogue reading fashionistas swooning over a foul-mouthed Black girl from Queens, that started out her career rapping in front of a handy-cam, is no mean feat. As over-exposed as she’s become- and it is getting to the point where it feels like you’re being repeatedly slapped round the face with a sexy Care Bear- she has revived the female rapper. Now, this is the point where people sweep in with protestations about Lil Kim, Jean Grae, Missy Elliott etc. Aside from there being a decade long drought of any female rappers having this much excitement around them, it’s not just that Minaj has already wiped the floor with them sales wise, it’s her ability to straddle both hip-hop and the mainstream that has been unprecedented.

As over-exposed as she is- and it is getting to the point where it feels like you’re being repeatedly slapped round the face with a sexy Care Bear- she has revived the female rapper.

So when Lil Kim, a legend…in her time, accused Minaj of catting her style I had to slow clap her. Now, I love Lil Kim, I’ve made fanny lapping motions at MTV when ‘How Many Licks’ came on and stuck by her throughout the plastic surgery that’s made her nose look like a vortex sucking the rest of her face inwards. Apart from all music in the history of music being some variation of what came before it, Kim’s washed-up whining comes across like another lame hip-hop hissy fit. For all its bravado and flaunting of wealth, hip-hop and its fans tend to get waves of tall poppy syndrome. “Don’t sell out to the tweens and lose touch with Da StReeTz, don’t get too commercial, don’t join the Illuminati, but do spend all your time making records about wanting lots more money and God wasn’t the last generation so much better? These kids don’t know about the glory days.” Jesus fuck, shut up.

Gimmicky image and chart candy music aside, I still can’t get mad at Minaj knowing before she switched up her style and started talking in haikus over ropey synth beats, with a Yoda-esque grasp of syntax, she could rap like a beast. Her credibility as a rapper is now stuck somewhere between the backlash of hip-hop fans that once lauded her, and confused broadsheet readers who don’t know much about the genre, but will reference The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill at every given opportunity to make it seem like they do. Personally, I think it’s to Nicki’s merit that she can have tweens eating out of her hand one minute then pull out a verse like Monster’s or rap about cunt punting her rival the next. Criticise her all you want, but she’s certainly put the spotlight firmly back on the female MC.

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