Not-So-Subliminal Messaging
(The story of Dat A$$)
My name is Alex Frecon. I rap (decently) I blog (above average) and I tweet (unsatisfactorily.) Feel free to check out my NoiseTrade Page. You can download free music, and sign up for more #FreconFriday episodes.
Another blog post on Nicki Minaj’s new album cover. I know what you’re thinking:
But wait. Hear me out. This is actually pretty interesting, not for the sake that it hasn’t already been talked about, but for the sake that she seems to be confused as to why it is that she’s getting talked about. And let me preface this all by saying — I get it, a dude talking about all of this — I might not have the proper authority. For that, I apologize. Allons-y!
As you may or may not know, Nicki Minaj has a new album cover. The focus of said album cover is pretty obvious. Exhibit A:
At first assessment, you can see that it draws attention to a certain set of Jordans. LOLJK It’s dat ass. What’s surprising though, is how deliberate it all seems to be. Surprising, because as you can guess, the internet called her out. They called her out hard. How did Nicki respond? She took the, “everyone else is doing it yet you don’t chastise them” route. She tip-toed the line of calling us all racist. She posted a bunch of pictures of white models posing with just their backsides and commenting on how that was supposed to be consider “Acceptable. LOL” L-O-Freaking L Nicki, but no, not double standard.
The thing is Nicki, is that those people are models. What are models you ask? Great question Nicki. Models are people who get paid to look sexy. That’s literally all they do. They stand in front of a camera and look sexy. They are sex symbols. Whether it’s their face, or their ass, that’s their sole talent — their sexiness. I know — crazy right? It’s, like, a totally crazy world that we live in — like totally.
Now, this might come as a shocker, but you are a rapper. People pay you because you provide them with good music. You leverage your talents of lyricism to make money. You write music and people pay you for it. That’s your job. From an economics perspective, your services and goods are your songs. People exchange money for them. When you got started, you were really good. Like really really good. Better than all of the dudes in the game. Yet at some point, you decided that that wasn’t enough to sell.
When you try to leverage your sex appeal to accomplish this, you’re making a very precise statement. You’re saying, “while I may or may not be a talented musician, I’ve decided that my sexuality is more marketable. I’m okay with that.” The real reason people got upset is because you went from being a talented musician, to being a sexual entity. You said “don’t focus on my music, focus on my assets.”
And that’s what we should all be taking away from this —
Nicki Minaj is okay with selling her sexuality. I think, that as an adult, she is obviously allowed to make that decision. She’s a big girl and she can do whatever she wants to with her body. I’m not questioning her right to showcase her sexuality, at all. I don’t however, think it makes sense for her to point fingers when negative associations arise from it. She has developed her brand as one that is directly tied to her sex appeal.
Have other people done this? Yes! Lots of people with FAR less talent than Nicki Minaj have done it. Deangelo certainly did it, 50 cent tried to do and Rhianna continually does it. It’s this idea of your sexuality first and your talents second. . I truly believe that the majority of people are not responding negatively to her image, but that this was the image she chose to promote, as an arist. And you know what?
She needs to, like an adult, own up to that. She needs to stand by it and she needs to embrace the backlash.
She could have just as easily said “You know what? I am a sexual being. It is part of my persona. It is part of my image. My art is directly tied to my physical appearance,” but she didn’t. She got defensive. She lashed out at society. She almost cried racism. Her defensiveness leads me to believe that deep down, she questions as to whether or not she’s made the right decision. Because let’s keep it real — she has had to sacrifice A LOT to get her body where it is today. People keep talking about her freedom to express her own body. That body is not really “hers.” That body is modified, manipulated and developed to promote an image that Nicki thought would be more successful than her own. It frustrates me because I don’t know WHY she had to make those changes. Why wasn’t talent enough for her? From the dramatic changes she’s made to her image, to the dramatic changes she’s made to her body, I can’t help but feel like somewhere deep down, she feels doubt.
I can’t help but feel like she doubts whether or not she’s making the right decisions as a woman. To her credit though, sex sells. Her sexualization is not coming without it’s benefits. She’s grasped the attention of the nation and she is getting paid. But again, it seems to be at a very significant and very real cost.
At the end of the day she shouldn’t have to rely on her sexuality to sell music. She is a dope rapper. She’s really talented. At the bottom of all of that plastic surgery and foundation rests a really talented spitter. Honestly, she’s better than just about anyone in the game right now. Again, at the end of the day it’s her choice, but sometimes I wonder if maybe she doesn’t hear all of this enough. Sometimes I wonder if all she hears about is her body image and her sexuality. Sometimes, I wonder if she’s just being encouraged or even forced to present herself as an object. Sometimes I wonder if she’s really in control of her own image.
Which leads me to a predicament. If this is just a glimpse as to how the industry treats talented women, then that’s messed up. In a fair world, the only indicator of success should be performance. Whatever it is that you do. — If you’re a teacher, or an athlete or a business person, you should only be judged by your performance. Everything else is and should be inconsequential. Let the woman do what it is that got her on all of our radars in the first place. Let the woman rap.
So what should we take away from all of this?
If there is one moral from this story, it’s that you should always question the motives for your actions.
If you have a good reason, it will make it easier to defend what you’ve done. If you’re not aligned with your actions, it will make defending them a lot more difficult. I know, because I’ve done it a lot. I do it all the time. At the very least, be prepared to say, “You know what? You’re right. I just wanted to put out a successful project, and I thought this was a savvy business move.” Be prepared to hold yourself accountable, because if you don’t someone else will do it for you. We live in a world that’s skewed. I don’t think it makes sense to hold anyone to a higher moral standard than we wouldn’t hold ourselves. At the end of the day Nicki Minaj is human. A human who was propositioned a life of extreme wealth and fame. She was given a choice, and she made it. As we can see here, this all comes at a price. It always comes at a price.
Nicki don’t fret though, I‘ll still peep the album….on Spotify
