My relationship with Nicki Minaj is likely similar to a lot of people’s relationship with her. I followed her career relatively early on and was always impressed with her technical proficiency as a rapper. Somewhere along the road I pulled away from her more pop influenced music because I truly saw that her strength as an artist was rooted in traditional rap and hip hop.
With her latest album, though, I feel more drawn to Nicki the person instead of Nicki the character. I’ve gotten into more than a couple of spirited debates with other people about whether Nicki is a positive feminist role model or a negative one. It has always struck me how quickly people desire to paint her as a caricature of herself and her sexuality, when in reality, her music speaks volumes about the power of her femininity.
On The Pink Print, Nicki raps with absolute skill and intelligence about her sexuality and her place in the hip hop community. I cannot commend her enough for putting out a record that is so good and so true to herself.
On the promotional tour for this album I am not surprised by her candour (because she is amazing and it does no one any good to condescend to her in this way) but rather emboldened by the grace, wit, and intelligence with which she discusses her craft.
Please keep doing exactly what you’re doing, Onika, because you’re a brilliant and incredible role model for young black women.
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