Do you think Nicki Minaj is misunderstood? Great — so does Nicki Minaj! That’s what the rapstress revealed in an interview with theGrio, where she elaborated on the theme that she mentioned during the premiere of her E! reality series My Truth on Sunday night — in short, that she blew the door open for other black women and isn’t adequately acknowledged for having done so. ”People purposefully don’t see the strides I made for hip-hop and black women in general,” she said during My Truth. In the new interview, though, she takes it even further.
“People hear me talk sometimes and they think I’m trying to be cocky,” she said. “No, I’m trying to be real. I’m trying to give facts. Me coming out and having an album that went number 1 in Japan, Australia, U.K, and the U.S.; name one female rapper that’s ever done it. You can’t.” Watch My Truth up top, then head below for more of Minaj’s interview.
She continued to explain that her successes have been discredited by black women of the previous generation: “A lot of times within the black community, especially the older black women, they kinda just write me off. And I think it’s important for you to look at the companies that I’ve done business with and realize that every time I do a campaign and it’s a successful campaign, we show mainstream America that black women can sell a product and that black women are influential and that we can have our own people support something that we support. And so that’s what I want black women to understand.”
While nothing Minaj says is objectively untrue, she undermines her success by having to explain how successful she is, and the lack of humility isn’t particularly flattering. As others have pointed out, My Truth doesn’t paint her in the best light — but with so many accomplishments, why bother being likable?
[via theGrio]
I think people are only writing her off because she’s dumbing herself down to sell products. And to add to that, she’s selling products as a black woman dressed as Barbie – a white woman.
I love her but I don’t think she’s opening doors. They were already open.
She is diminishing women overall. She is plastic and fake and talentless. Who does she think she is impressing?
Being cocky is not attractive. Older black women don’t pay her respect? Lil Kim did it first, how about paying her some respect! She doesn’t have enough talent to consider herself so high above everyone else.
She is a waste of good air! Previous comments about other women rappers are correct…she is not trendsetting…they have…they were the ones that OPENED THE DOOR for creatures like her. She does dummy herself down to mainstream America! Be Black…stop trying to be a Black Barbie or BLady GAG GAG. Besides all that…where in hell did she come from to begin with?