It’s Just Hip-Hop
Nicki Minaj is bossed the fuck up and she works hard every day to prove her talent and gain the respect she deserves. The first studio album she released, Pink Friday, showed just how much talent she possessed and set the bar for her future albums extremely high. The album was nominated for a grammy for best rap album alongside her nominations for best new artist and best rap performance.
She worked with Eminem on her song Romans Revenge, a single released to promote the release of Pink Friday. She brags about it later in Want Some More, “Who had Eminem on her first album / who had Kanye saying ‘She a problem?’ / who the fuck came in the game, made her own column?” Romans Revenge is a powerful track with heavy, futuristic beats and strong lyrics from both rappers. Nicki also reveled that she collaborated with Eminem in an interview before the release of the song. She said that the song was her favorite to record. Having the real Slim Shady on one of her tracks was a big deal for her. Slim’s rap credits have made him an extremely well known rapper and lyricist in the industry so it is no shock Nicki was honored to work with him.
Eminem released a song about a year after called Fast Lane. In the song he raps the lyrics “Let me tell you what this pretty little dame’s name is, ’cause she’s kinda famous / And I hope that I don’t sound too heinous when I say this / Nicki Minaj, but I wanna stick (My penis in your anus!).” If that doesn’t feel disgusting and intrusive to read his response when asked about the line should. “You wanna know about the Nicki Minaj line? I wasn’t saying anything that everyone wasn’t already thinking. I mean, obviously I’ve worked with Nicki. I did a song with her. She’s a phenomenal rapper, and phenomenal looking. [Laughs.] I mean look, it was right there. I thought it was funny. I think she sees the fun in it too, but no, I haven’t spoken to her about it. It’s just hip-hop.”
Eminem has turned the phrase “It’s just hip-hop” into an excuse for not just derogatory language towards women but singling out a woman by her name. He doesn’t even speak to her about the matter or even really believes that it is something he should have done. Eminem is known for pushing buttons and saying anything anyone tells him not to but hip hop has created an environment where there is nothing wrong with him doing that, especially not in his own mind.
The actual lyric is invasive. Nicki is spoken about like her opinion on Eminem’s penis in her anus does not matter & only Eminem’s desires do. Rappers write invasive lyrics about the female body very often which is it’s own issue but singling out a rapper by her name just makes it so much more invasive and disrespectful. Nicki works so incredibly hard to gain the respect she has and deserves. There is such a greater issue here that created an environment where Eminem is able to easily disrespected Nicki with no regrets and no feeling that he even was.
For Eminem to also the phrase “She’s a phenomenal rapper” with “and phenomenal looking. [Laughs.]” shows how connected women’s success is to their appearance. It is almost like Eminem thinks he is complimenting her in his rap song since he is desired by her attractiveness. Most of all for him to laugh after saying it just creates this joking atmosphere that seems awkward, uncomfortable, and masculine. Not to mention he starts the conversation with “I wasn’t saying anything that everyone else wasn’t already thinking” as if that phrase is A) a fact & B) an actual reason for the explicit lyric. I can pretty confidently say that a lot of people weren’t thinking anything close to what Eminem rapped and even if they were there was obviously a reason no one else was saying it. Eminem was brought into a hip hop world where his voice has more power than he realizes and his words can have an impact that he didn’t intend. He is responding to his surroundings but hopefully that environment keeps changing to create a less masculine, more inclusive space.
