Late night trawling through the web always leads to good things for me. Tonight found me on allhiphop.com, where I read the current editorial by the gifted poet Jasmine Mans, a response to the poem she performed at the University of Wisconsin
If I tell you that I started writing this editorial 2 minutes after watching the video and reading her editorial, it would not express enough to level to which her words moved me. Her words were loud, passionate, brash…and true, and it is embarrassing to realize that many will debate this fact. Many will dismiss Mans as “a hater”, when in fact she is merely being Socratic in that she is presenting these questions forcing; us to look at a growing issue in order to stimulate our minds. Who better than the fans should critically observe their artists and be the first to call them out when they’re doing things wrong? I’m a Nicki Minaj fan as well, so I understand Mans emotions. I recognize the moment in myself when I took a step back and thought…what is Nicki Minaj’s role in Hip-Hop? Or better yet, what will her legacy be? Is this the future our young women have to look forward to?
“Her ‘Barbie’ image is an objectification of womanhood. How can we expect our male rappers to pay homage and respect to women when the voice that is representing us is tainted with sexual innuendos and ‘child’s play?’”
Let me be clear as to the point I’m trying to get across here. The Barbie doll was created by Jack Ryan and Ruth Handler. Jack Ryan was at one point a weapons designer for The Raytheon Company, creating Sparrow and Hawk missiles. In her article titled “Our Barbies, Ourselves”, journalist Emily Prager details how the Barbie seems to be a creation made by men; that ideal perfection, the flawless shape like the video vixens we see on TV that is truly unattainable. Is this what our children want to grow up to be? Hard, fake and soulless with a pretty smile and pumps to match their hair? Because that’s exactly what seems to be happening. This image is not empowering our youth, it’s disempowering them, and that’s what scares Jasmine Mans.
“W.E.B. DuBois said all art is propaganda and should be used to uplift and challenge the African American community, and if art does not do such it is useless. Nicki Minaj is too powerful to be useless.”
The idea of Barbie doll perfection is far from old. We all remember Clueless, or any TV/Movie with that perfect girl in school that people either loved or hated. Nicki didn’t invent this, but she is the first person to use it in Hip-Hop, to this magnitude. And it’s scary. Hip-Hop is supposed to motivate us, inspire us, and give our young women a sense of individuality and self love. The Barbie doll is anything but an individual. It is a biased clone; a vision of beauty seen through a dirty funhouse mirror. Let’s not even get started on the racial underpinnings of it either. So now the question is: Why, Nicki? Why did you choose this image and mold yourself (literally) to suit it? And now that your strategy worked, and you’ve attained this power, now that all the world is looking at the first hugely successful femcee since Missy Elliot, what will you do? Because whether you want it or not, you have immense power and influence over these children, and the eyes of the youth are on you.
Nicki the Boss.
Nicki the Ninja
Nicki the Harujuki Barbie.
How about Nicki the Person?
Speak on it.
- frndofthepeople
“It’s not a diss song, it’s a real song.”
I've seen a few Nicki Minaj interviews and in them she refers to herself as a business woman, she describes her approach as business oriented. Barbie sells. She's mentioned that she wants to be a positive role model to young women but at this point I agree it is fair to question to what extent this is actually fulfilled. She's done a great job at marketing an image but it is only fair to wonder if has become the usual tale of prostitution that is so often seen in the music industry.
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