Unless you have been living under a rock recently, you know that Nicki Minaj did an interview for New York Times Magazine that was AMAZING.
Let me clarify that statement though. The article itself, was not amazing. The author, Vanessa Grigoriadis, clearly had an angle before going into the interview. All of the questions she asked Minaj were about the headlines she has been attached to in the past year. What’s going on with Lil Wayne and the whole Young Money label controversy? Can you give us the scoop on the drama between you and Taylor and you and Miley? Will the Drake and Meek Mill beef EVER END? Minaj handled all questions like a BOSS, before rightfully throwing Grigoriadis out of the interview. In spite of all that, here are the 5 best quotes from the interview.
On body confidence:
‘‘Back in the day, in hip-hop, the thick girl was glorified. Now the rappers are dating skinny white women. So it’s almost like, ‘Wait a minute, who’s going to tell the thick black girls that they’re sexy and fly, too?’ ’’
On dating and why women should want to be their own person:
‘‘Since I was 15, I came out of one relationship and went into another relationship,’’ she said in the interview. ‘‘In my relationships, I’ve been told, ‘You don’t have to work that much.’ But I can’t stop working, because it’s bigger than work to me. It’s having a purpose outside any man.’’
On Miley and the repercussions of cultural appropriation (#MILEYWHATSGOOD):
‘‘The fact that you feel upset about me speaking on something that affects black women makes me feel like you have some big balls. You’re in videos with black men, and you’re bringing out black women on your stages, but you don’t want to know how black women feel about something that’s so important? Come on, you can’t want the good without the bad. If you want to enjoy our culture and our lifestyle, bond with us, dance with us, have fun with us, twerk with us, rap with us, then you should also want to know what affects us, what is bothering us, what we feel is unfair to us. You shouldn’t not want to know that.’’
On how she REALLY feels about the Drake and Meek Mill beef:
‘‘They’re men, grown-ass men,’’ she says. ‘‘It’s between them.’’
‘‘It doesn’t make me feel good. You don’t ever want to choose sides between people you love. It’s ridiculous. I just want it to be over.’’
On women putting other women down:
‘‘Women blame women for things that have nothing to do with them. I really want to know why — as a matter of fact, I don’t.’’ she says. ‘‘To put down a woman for something that men do, as if they’re children and I’m responsible, has nothing to do with you asking stupid questions, because you know that’s not just a stupid question. That’s a premeditated thing you just did.’”
That last quote came as a result of Grigoriadis asking if Minaj thrived off of the drama that the Drake and Meek Mill beef has caused. Many readers couldn’t help but feel as if that question was asked because Minaj is African- American, considering something like that would not have been asked to many other female artists. Never once did Grigoriadis ask Minaj about her music, her TV show, or the great things she has been doing to empower women to practice their sexual agency and feminist power. As an avid Nicki Minaj fan and an African-American woman, it was hard to read the article. Aside from the iconic quotes, which I will quote now until the end of time, the article itself made me feel as though African American artists (especially female ones) still have a long way to go before receiving the accurate amount of respect they deserve by the media.