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The problem with Nicki Minaj: Out female MCs on being real in rap

Nicki Minaj graces the covers of two very different magazines this fall. The first is Out, a publication geared toward gay people (mostly men). Second is Complex, written for (mostly straight) men. in both interviews, she discusses her sexuality, which has been a hot topic since she signed with Lil’ Wayne’s Young Money Records.

Here’s what she told Out:

“I started making it my business to say things that would empower women, like, ‘Where my bad bitches at?’ to let them know, ‘I’m here for you.” Then, when I started going to the shows and it was nothing but girls, it was like, Did I go too far with embracing my girls? Because now they want to kiss and hug me.”

Then she specifies:

“But I don’t date men either. People who like me – they’ll listen to my music, and they’ll know who I am. I just don’t like that people want you to say what you are, who you are. I just am. I do what the f–k I want to do. The point is, everyone is not black and white. There are so many shades in the middle, and you’ve got to let people feel comfortable with saying what they want to say when they want to say it. I don’t want to feel like I’ve got the gun pointed at my head and you’re about to pull the trigger if I don’t say what you want to hear. I just want to be me and do me.”

Similarly, she told Complex that she is celibate:

“When I rap, it’s just an extension of how I speak, and that’s how I talk. If you don’t like it, don’t listen. I’m also not going to explain something just because I said it in a rap. Take what you want from it. [In the press] I didn’t say [I don’t like women]. I said I don’t have sex with women. I don’t have sex with men right now either. If [bisexual is] what they wanna call me, then fine.”

If Nicki is asexual one minute, it would appear that she’s not the next. In the same interview, she’s asked about a video in which she said she wants to have a threesome with Cassie and Lauren London. That’s not in her rapping or videos, which she says is part of her performance.

So when is Nicki truly being Nicki? Is her whole persona a gimmick? And how can she say “They’ll listen to my music and know who I am” and then turn around and say “I’m not going to explain something just because I said it in a rap.” Is she dismissing the very thing she says we should believe to be true?

The problem is that Nicki Minaj is the biggest thing in hip-hop right now. Not just the biggest woman, the biggest new artist that everyone anticipates seeing, hearing, Tweeting. Whether she means to or not, she represents women in hip-hop, and the ones who hear her lyrics about lesbians and sleeping with women aren’t always going to read every interview with her in which she “clarifies” she doesn’t sleep with them.

Out MC Melange LaVonne says Nicki is doing it for the sex appeal. “I think sex sells in the music industry and she has done a successful job at it. Anyone who wants to glorify homosexuality is OK in my book. I’d rather you glorify it than bash it.”

LaVonne says she’s dealt with homophobia in her career, but she hopes to be “the Rosa Parks of hip-hop.”

“I think people still aren’t ready for it,” she says. “But for me, I know that I have to create my own path regardless if the industry isn’t ready, I’m ready, and that’s all the confirmation I need to move forward. I am going to sit in the front, and you can try to make me move, but I will be here along with others who aren’t afraid to be themselves. We just want to be able to make a living and enjoy what we do just like the next hip-hop artist.”

Shunda K thinks Nicki isn’t real at all. “Faking it to make it is not wassup! However, from my wifey’s perspective, she feels that Nicki finally feels like the woman she’s always wanted to be after the plastic surgery and getting her teeth fixed, etc. So, maybe she is bi now – who the hell knows!”

Shunda is arguably the most successful out female hip-hop MC, her original group Yo Majesty having signed with Domino Records for their debut album. Since, she’s worked with Peaches on a single and several other artists to produce regular mixtapes and hot tracks. Shunda says being gay and being a Christian are a part of her, so therefore part of her music. “I think its necessary for people as a whole to come out and be themselves. It is our responsibility to love one another and look out for each other cause we all we got at the end of the day! There are plenty of people in the industry faking it to make it, gay and all. Hopefully, they’ll start being real soon, too.”

God-Des, of the duo God-Des and She, agrees – being authentic is a huge part of being an MC. “I don’t judge anyone for the approach they take to achieve success. I think it is kind of annoying that both Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj areusing lesbianism to make hits,” she says, “but they can do them, and I will do me.”

God-Des says misogyny is more of a problem in the hip-hop industry, and that being a masculine woman just feeds into that, saying, “Because feminine women like Nicki Minaj can make gay references all day and people dig it.”

Minaj might not have aimed to express love for women in the romantic and sexual sense, but maybe it’s because fans expect artists to be representing themselves in their music, especially as a new artist who is making a name for themselves and moving up the ranks. But unlike Shunda, God-Des or Melange, she isn’t doing it for the greater good of a movement: she’s looking to find fans for herself.

San Francisco-based rapper JenRO says it’s frustrating when someone like Minaj will make statements or allow for innuendo suggesting that they are into women, but then later retract it.

“If she is bisexual then so be it. But I don’t think you can say one thing on the record and then go back and say you’re not. That’s what we call frontin’ and inhip-hop you can’t front because people will pull your card and question you about it. She probably figured that you can’t just be a “fake” bisexual for attention without fans and the whole world asking you about it. If she is down with women, I’ll let you know where ourdinner date will be.”

As the only woman on Rhymesayers Records, Psalm One could be carrying a burden like that of Nicki: Prove yourself amongst the men on your label, and use your feminine wyles to do so. But Psalm, an out bisexual, is able to straddle the line: be clever and cunning with lyrics that reference her orientation, but not having to spell it out to later defend or distort it.

“I think some people have to play the game the way the mainstream dictates,” Psalm says. “It’s a tough road when it’s a gay, or even a bisexual road. I thinkNicki has sugar in her tank, as do I, but Nicki has to use sexuality in her game. It’s necessary for her survival. It’s necessary for alot of sex rap careers; but the thing is, you have to be the girl other chicks want to be, and the girl other dudes wanna f–k. You can’t marginalize yourself if you want record sales. At least that’s the general theme in the high stakes game of major label mainstream big boy hip-hop.”

Psalm says that in hip-hop, it’s still not “cool” to be gay. “I think gays should be outraged to be compared to rappers!” she jokes. “But seriously though, hip-hop is so huge, you gotta expect people from all walks of life enjoy it. Rap should be more open-minded. Personally, it made me not want to speak about my personal life at all when it came to rapping. Like some things were off limits. Thankfully I don’t feel like that anymore.”

Hip-hop is one of the forms of music that fans are most interested in the story behind the artist, to learn where their passion comes from. Nicki Minaj may be putting on a show, but it’s just confusing the people that want to like her, but can’t seem to figure out why’s constantly backpeddaling or explaining her explanations. She’s become an unintentional gay ally, of sorts, but doesn’t seem as interested in being for anything other than herself. And that may be what contemporary hip-hop has come to be about. But, at its core, it’s about something deeper: community.

“The only threat to out female MCs is yourselves, ladies,” Shunda K says. “I mean if you’re not putting a true message of self worth, encouraging and motivating the people, just rapping, you can forget it. That goes for everybody in the game! That’s what we need to set ourselves apart. Show and prove that you loving you, not just faking it to make it, but giving the people hope.”

For more information on the artists in the article, visit their websites: Melange LaVonne, Shunda K, Psalm One, God-Des and She and JenRO.

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