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It's Halloween so I’m sure a lot of young girls/women will be dressing up as their beloved Nicki Minaj. I think this piece I came across showed up at the right time. I’ve been browsing a couple blog sites and kept coming across this one particular piece that has a lot of people talking. A young woman by the name of Jasmine Mans, did an original spoken word piece entitled “Nicki Minaj” at an event at the University of Wisconsin- Madison. Miss Jasmine Mans has undeniable talent but from some of the comments I’ve been seeing, I feel like her message is going completely over some people’s heads and bringing all of Ms Minaj’s little Barbies bad sides out.
I enjoy spoken word but I even had to listen more than once to fully get what this young lady was saying. I personally don’t think this young woman was completely trying to “go in” or diss Nicki Minaj, but rather shed a little light on what kind of effect the industry or money in general has on people. I feel like she’s addressing the change Nicki Minaj went through from when she was trying to get her foot in the door, to now. I also don’t feel like what was said, applies to just Nicki Minaj, it could go hand in hand for female rappers like Lil Kim, Foxy Brown or Trina (just saying because these are the three names that are also being associated with Nicki Minaj’s “sex selling image”), it’s just that Nicki Minaj is the only one relevant and appealing right now.
And while I will say she is relevant and doing the most, is she really the female emcee young women should look up to? Because we don’t know Nicki Minaj the person; all we know is this character she’s portraying, which is a Barbie that at one point in time didn’t cater to little girls of color. There was a time when white Barbie’s would just be dipped in black paint and when that paint chipped all that was left was again, a white Barbie that doesn’t even represent Nicki Minaj’s (fake or real) curvaceous figure. There’s nothing wrong with being sexy but is Nicki really that different from the video vixens that get such negative attention? Is Nicki Minaj really doing what she’s doing for women or is she hindering us even more? [Kanye Shrug] thoughts anyone?
