Never before has the world seen a Female Rapper fare so well on a Pop front in the way Queens belle Nicki Minaj has in the last two years.
Outselling Rihanna‘s ‘Loud‘ and Beyonce‘s ‘4‘ in the US with her debut set ‘Pink Friday‘, Minaj’s success albeit commendable, has placed her under intense criticism.
Criticism, which has seen her labelled a sell-out for embracing Pop music.
Now she has weighed in on these claims.
Her thoughts below…
Speaking on the matter with Charlamagne Tha God, she explained:
People thought that when I came out that was me in my entirety. It wasn’t. It was a small facet of me.
When I started Rapping I didn’t think I could be myself but when I started winning I started doing my accents, my voices and my costumes- who you see now is a more multifaceted mixture of all the personalities that I have in me.
For everyone who doesn’t understand me,there’s someone who does. I grew up in New York my whole life, so I wasn’t having the same conversation I was having in the block that I was having in the office when I was working on Wall Street.
It’s unfortunate that Hip Hop culture forces people to lean only to one side, when that’s detrimental to your future and growth. We haven’t seen what Jay Z has done happen with a woman.
I mean- I tip my hat to Queen Latifah because she does movies, theater, musical, voice overs for cartoons- is she a sell out or is she winning?
So these other b”tches that only did Rap and now they’re washed, living in low income housing- is that really winning? Just so a n*gger in the street can give me a dap? The same nigga that didn’t buy my album anyway? Get the f*ck outta here!
Minaj’s point- though aimed at Femcees- is a problem that affects the wider (urban) community.
Indeed, though it’s a tough pill to swallow, the urban community’s fetishization of poverty is the very reason the success rate for Female Rappers is so low.
Sure, though Lil Kim‘s run at the top was undeniably groundbreaking, there is no reason she couldn’t be as powerful as Jay Z, Kanye and the like if she had struck other ventures when her name was still hot.
Unfortunately, like many narrow minded people, some members of the black community equate mainstream success with ‘trying to be white’ and avoid branching out like the plague- robbing themselves of reaching their full potential.