The Interpersonal doing of Nicki Minaj.
Nicki had a sense of female empowerment because she wanted her mother to be stronger and change her current situation and she felt that she could help her mother change that. After going to a performing arts high school, she came to believe she can use her acting skills to further the rapping skills that she realized she had. Soon she was being mentored by Lil Wayne and was able to become apart of his record label, Young Money, and she started her full rap career. (Semperger, — Allie)
Throughout her career she has had different controversial things come up. Early in her career, she was in a feud with one of her female rap influences, Lil Kim, which almost caused her to want to stop rapping because she felt not appreciated by the rap community. Also, she always embraced the fact that she was a bisexual woman and she used this to further her career and through using the image of “Barbie” as traction to gain fans of all kinds. She also takes advantage of the fact that she believes women have more creative freedom than men and she portrays herself in such a way to use that to her advantage and led to her becoming popular. This all help to feed into her image of women empowerment. In all her songs there is a little bit of feminist movement, which is the type of resistance she uses.
Nicki Minaj is often talked about as one to put out explicit music. While researching I found some articles that go into a deeper look at her music examining exactly what her thought process is while composing these songs. She often gives diversity within her album giving a little bit of transparency. On her first album “ Pink Friday” there are some songs discussing what she did and did not do to get where she was in her career at the time.( Semperger, — Allie) Her music comes from a place of struggle, determination, and hard ache. She also imitate other artists that she looked up to when she was an upcoming artist.
The way that she uses resistance in her music is by broadcasting the intimate struggles between women and society. In many of her songs she embraces the feminist power roles and how women are dominating with their independence. In one song particular she calls out many girls giving them their props of how great they and the impact they have on her and the world. Much of career is focused on the empowerment of women in everything we do. She speaks on how women often tear each other down instead of coming together as a whole.(Hunter, M., & Cuenca) In previous interviews she has talked about how she wants women to be more comfortable in the skin they are in mentioning this in the song “Anaconda”. When she makes music she tries to centered her songs around the up building of women.
In this my research I found more articles touching on more about Nicki and how she has changed the rap game with her dynamic approach of black feminism. “It relates Minaj’s music video “Stupid Hoe” released on January 20, 2012 in which she manipulates herself in radicalized gendered ways including morphing into a distorted Barbie doll and a Raggedy Ann doll.” “She symbolizes significant and profound shifts in hip-hop that have occurred over the past two decades.”(Roach, S. (2019)) Focused on sex, love, and relationships and how black women in the industry are seen as lower ranked when it comes to rapping. She has turn this idea around and open doors for many other female rappers to come into the industry and turn head no matter what they wear or talk about in their music.(Roach, S. (2019))
Going through this song I hear a lot of different elements of allusion used in various ways. A lot of these are based off of men in the rap game rather then men. This prove how women aren’t really seen in the rap culture or valued like men are. Mostly within the verse and not so much in the chorus and pre chorus. Starting out the first one that I noticed was “ I told them it’s no friends in game you ain’t learn that yet” the get at the end is a reference to biggie smalls “ yet on Brooklyn Finest with Jay-Z. Another allusion could be how she’s referring to the people in the industry when she says “the game” and how there are no real friends because it’s all a play for money, also putting the rapper The Game in the video. Lastly this is also related to drake song “ No New Friends” which could go back to their long term friendship.
The second one being don’t burn your bridges which is a popular saying meaning if you get mad at someone you shouldn’t ruin your entire relationship with them. She says this “ All the bridges you came over, don’t burn that yet”. Then she goes on to say “ self- righteousness and entitled but they swearing on the Bible” this relates to how when your in court your told to swear on the Bible that you wouldn’t lie because your under oath. The next line has some wordplay but also allusion “ but i still don’t wish death on ’em I just reflect on ‘em”. She basically saying she thinks about them (reflects on them) and they are like mirrors and she sees herself in them, in their behavior.
Despite her constant representation of female power using this time of resistance in most of her works she does have a lot of versatility in her music. I choose a song that I felt like emphases the different styles of music she represents.
The song I choose for Nicki Minaj is “Pills N Potions. This song is on her album Pink-print that came out in 2014. Starting with the meaning of the song and breaking down what they mean. At the beginning of the song, she starts by saying “ Pills ’n’ potions, We’re overdosing I’m angry but still love you Pills ’n’ potions We’re overdosing’ Can’t stand it but I still love you.” This is the pre-chorus of the song and this stanza is talking about all the different types of the way we self medicate to deal with pain. She uses pills and potions as a metaphor to represent how people can sometimes be the drugs that we are using to get over our pain even though they are hurting us. She brings this to life when she says “ I still love” which is the chorus of the song because at the end of the love transcends all of the hurt and pain.
The beat comes in strong and heavy, you definitely hear some drums. The drums are hard and kind of the base of the song, because they are played throughout every single part of the song. Within the first 5 to 10 seconds all you get is drums then come the shaker and they are consistent throughout the entire piece. With those two instruments combined you get a very mellow head bop sound. The dun dun dun at the being basically sets the tone for the song and allows for other instrument to come in like we practice in our fall song. The third sound you’re getting is when the beat actually drop it starts to get a little higher in pitch leading up to this point. All the other instrument stop and then you have a return of every sound including the main beat. The main beat only last for the chorus then it returns to the original drums and shakers. This piece sounds more jazz like when you listen to it instrumental.
There is a switch up in the tone of the song after the first chorus. First we were hearing this beat drop and then all instrument being played at once. They slowly fade out but not for too long. The drums gradually get louder and the shaker remain the same throughout. Doing the second chorus everything intensify. We have louder base, more shakers, and the beat gets stronger in sound. There is a slight bridge toward the end of the song when she brings the chorus back one more time and the pitch is changed up. It’s a very deep sound and brings your attention back to the core of the song. The beat does not return to its natural state after the second chorus. It’s a constant heavy base and there is no fade out the song ends with everything on a high note.
Lastly, to discuss the melody of this song it has a very soft tone to it while you hear some piano and voice. It sounds like it’s being played in C major and the timber or voice isn’t fast or slow but just goes along with the beat of a gentle but harsh kind of sounds to get the point across of the song. The tempo is very medium-paced and picks at doing the rapping parts. The timbre doesn’t really change except in the part of the song when the chorus comes in the sound get a little higher. The melody stays the same throughout the whole song little to no change at all. The beat is a common one used around the world that I have heard a lot and very familiar with. You can’t really hear a lot of harmony in this song because it has a consistent tune from start to finish with little change doing the chorus and at the end.
Citation
Nicki Minaj. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://sites.middlebury.edu/genporap/nicki-minaj/.
Hunter, M., & Cuenca, A. (2017). Nicki Minaj and the Changing Politics of Hip-Hop: Real Blackness, Real Bodies, Real Feminism? Feminist Formations, 29(2), 26–46. https://doi.org/10.1353/ff.2017.0015
Roach, S. (2019). Black Respectable Currency: Reading Black Feminism and Sexuality in Contemporary Performance. Journal of American Culture, 42(1), 10–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.12970
Semperger, — Allie. “Minaj, Nicki.” Contemporary Musicians, edited by Tracie Ratiner, vol. 70, Gale, 2011, pp. 131–133. Gale Ebooks, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX1997800048/GVRL?u=west41605&sid=GVRL&xid=0b8b11a6. Accessed 21 Oct. 2019.
