I like to think I’m getting better at listening to hip hop/rap. I still mostly don’t like it, but I do think I’m getting better at it. It’s still tricky, though. I’m predisposed against the vulgarity by preference, but even if I weren’t it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me from a rhetorical perspective. Like, what is Minaj trying to say about the world? What’s she trying to say about sex and gender roles? On the surface, it sounds like she’s buying into the idea that women are sexual and need sexual satisfaction from men. A slightly deeper look at that, particularly if you listen to her in interviews, gets you to some form of female empowerment. Sex is something that can belong to women and provide them with opportunity, authority, and satisfaction. However, that perspective still puts women in the role and environment that was designed to satisfy men’s sexual desires. Y’know? At the end of the day, misogynistic pussy-chasing rappers and the the feministic and empowered women rappers are rapping about the same content. Both rappers are writing and performing songs about the same sexual acts, with a lot of the same sexual roles, with a lot of the same sexual dialogue. It does not seem to me to be effective toward the purpose for which it’s stated to be. But I’m also not a part of the scene and so I’m hesitant to make judgements I’m not qualified to make.
It’s tricky. Which is fair and expected, because it’s a tricky topic, but also I think that trickiness is the very core of the issue I take with this music. At this point, I’m less concerned with the content (in theory, at least) and more concerned with how brazenly the content is displayed as fact, as “the way it is” or “the way it should be”. I’m concerned with the way rappers (or at least, in this particular case, Nicki Minaj) communicate their arguments. It is aggressive and manipulative, I don’t care for it. The narratives they sell are incomplete with reckless abandon. These narratives are sexual, they’re personal, they’re political, and they all take advantage of a platform and a medium in order to push definite answers to questions that I think cause most of their damage from having so many available definite answers. Does that make sense? Minaj addresses a tricky topic in such a way as to make it crude and crass. She simplifies something complex in a way that I believe is rhetorically ineffective. And, along with that, I just don’t enjoy it.
From a music perspective, I stand by saying it’s boring and repetitive and lacking in melody and harmony and things I actually like about music. Occasionally she’ll have a decent pop song, but I don’t think she’s actually all that great of a rapper. Like, for all the issues I have with Eminem, I do think he’s a good rapper, he consistently has great lines and great flow and rhythm, it’s technically sound. Minaj’s rapping does not impress me. And like, yes I do occasionally like her pop songs, but only so much. Like, it’s still not great pop songs, I still don’t love it.
I’m kinda using Eminem as my main measuring stick here. Content is differently bad than Eminem, but still bad. My read on it is that Eminem is a lot smarter, a lot more intentional about the damage he’s doing, that he’s trying to do, with his music. I take issue with a loooot of stuff about Eminem, but I can’t honestly say I don’t respect him on some level. The reason he’s a low F isn’t because I thought he was mid, it’s because he had a powerful presence and I decided I was at odds with that. Minaj shares some similar issues as a function of operating in the same genre and tradition, but they feel almost stumbled into. The question I’m asking myself is this: do I give high value to somebody who I think is higher quality but more directly opposed to me, or to somebody who I think is lower quality but maybe only happens to be in opposition to me?
It’s a tough ask, and at the end of the day I think my decision comes down to a moment I experienced listening to Roman’s Revenge featuring Eminem. When Eminem’s rap comes on there, the difference between him and Minaj is made so start, they’re right next to each other on the very same song, they are in the same space, they are impossible to not compare. And Eminem is just… better. Like, substantially, qualitatively, decidedly better. I heard Nicki rap, then I heard Eminem rap, and Eminem is a great rapper and Nicki doesn’t really compare. I think that’s got to be worth something, that’s got to mean something.
That’s a whole lot of words to say that, at the end of the day, I think that Nicki Minaj is just… not good. I tried to find something to like and I thought about it and I just dislike every element. Her pop’s not great. Her rap’s not great. Her rhetoric’s not great. Everything is mid at best, frustrating and unpleasant at worst. She’s not really incendiary, but she’s still problematic. The degree to which she’s problematic combined with what I perceive to be the low quality of her music leaves an F as the most fitting tier for me to put her in. I don’t like Nicki Minaj
Nicki Minaj complete, now listening to: Babyshambles
tunafruitsandwitch 