From Clutch Magazine:
Hip-hop heads everywhere have awaited the return of a female emcee. Mainstream female rappers like Queen Latifah and Eve have taken up residences in other sectors of entertainment with the occasional international sighting of Lauryn Hill and underground admiration of Jean Grae, Santigold and MIA. No artist has made a splash similar to the acclaimed female wordsmiths of yesteryear like Nicki Minaj. Not necessarily known for her lyrical talent, the rapper achieves significant attention in the media and regular radio play for her collaborations with Lil’ Wayne, Ludacris and Usher.
The vacancy of female rap artists have made such an astounding impact on the hip-hop generation that the emergence of someone like Minaj presents a peculiar mix of unpreparedness and prediction. Minaj isn’t merely a Lil’ Kim clone, she is the 21st century inheritance of post-modern branding, technological advancement and hip-hop male desire. In a music genre where authenticity is everything, Minaj’s (and camp) diligent attempts at packaging a distinct female hip-hop presentation with borrowed Barbie nuances and a rehearsed dialect in tow raises questions around the Minaj underneath it all.
14 Years Since Lil’ Kim’s “Hard Core”
It’s been over a decade since Lil’ Kim released “Hard Core”, and the sexual exploitation and commodification of Black female bodies in hip-hop have multiplied. Female rap veterans like Lil’ Kim and Pepa have taken a near obsessed approach to plastic surgery. Several critics single out these women, blaming their changing looks on industry narcissism. But if many of us can give empathy to Michael Jackson, blaming the late King of Pop’s evolving face on the effects of his childhood, why can’t we give the same consideration to these now modified women, and newcomer, Nicki Minaj? Whether Minaj has a faux buttocks or not, there is something considerably odd about the way she looks. When Minaj made her official debut into hip-hop, with a well-publicized introduction by Lil’ Wayne, loads of before and after images surfaced on the Web alleging the rapper changed her looks with a focus on her behind. In fact, Nicki Minaj’s butt is arguably a topic many have become overly consumed with. Strangely, it can be understood why non-Black women might consider surgical butt implants in a society now obsessed with bottoms. But for most Black women, whose bodies naturally extends added weight to the derriere, it seems is no longer enough for hip-hop.
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