This story originally appeared in i-D’s The Royalty Issue, no. 370, Winter 2022. Order your copy here.
This summer’s VMAs could have been retitled Nicki Minaj’s Victory Lap. In a ten-minute performance, the biggest-selling female rapper of all time celebrated the past, present, and future of her decade-plus career.
It was capped with the live debut of “Super Freaky Girl”, her record-breaking US number one and the first solo female rap song to debut at the top since Lauryn Hill in 1998. But beyond the pink wig and whiplash-inducing body were signs that a lifelong forward-thinker was ready to reflect. Nicki brought a handful of Barbz – her devoted fans – on stage with her to accept the Video Vanguard Award, and her performance was spiked with easter eggs for anyone that’s been with her since she was signing boobs in TriState area clubs.
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Wearing a ponytail that poofed like candy floss, Nicki performed in a plastic box that nodded to the Barbie packaging-themed art of her epoch-instigating debut mixtape, 2007’s Playtime Is Over. Later, she moved on to a nail salon set-up that evoked a Barbie Dreamhouse reimagining of Poly Nails, her longtime spot on Rockaway Boulevard and where she filmed the video for “Wuchoo Know”, an early freestyle over Lil Mama’s “Lip Gloss”.
Like Mariah Carey and Madonna, whose lyrics are matrices of allusion and callbacks to their earlier music, Nicki has reached a point where her own work is rich enough to be the only mood board she needs. The Video Vanguard award she received at the VMAs was a testament to Nicki’s creativity and endurance in the mainstream of a music industry that rewards sameness over creativity.
To say she swam upstream is to put it lightly. In 2004, she shopped a demo CD to every record label office in New York she could think of and was unceremoniously told that female rap was dead. Signing with Lil Wayne’s Young Money label in 2009, Nicki proved that it was not only in rude health; it was ready for a total system reset.
Minaj treated her bars like four-dimensional chess-an assault of internal rhymes and multiple meanings that could meditate on pussy-on-your sideburns and horror movie villains, as well as topics heard even less commonly in hip-hop: Monica Lewinsky, The Hills, the pulpy TV channel Oxygen. In Nicki’s wackadoodle world, raunch was usually laced with something funny, silly, or scary. In a verse on Ludacris’ “My Chick Bad”, she compared herself to Freddy Krueger while wearing a leather corset; at the VMAs this year, she danced on a pole in Crypt Keeper contact lenses.
Nicki proved that a woman in hip-hop could scale the highest commercial heights while expressing herself with absolute freedom (in one 2010 performance she looked like a cross between Marge Simpson, Barbarella, and a purple Quality Street). Her success opened the door for today’s thrilling and overdue–chart domination of young female rappers, as well as inspiring gay artists like Lil Nas X and Saucy Santana to express themselves however they please.
This year, a trio of singles presented a spectrum of her talents: the hardboiled street rap of “Do We Have a Problem?”, the reggae bacchanal “Likkle Miss Remix”, with Jamaican artist Skeng, as well as “Super Freaky Girl” and its attendant Queen Mix, which featured BIA, Katie Got Bandz, Akbar V, Maliibu Miitch, and JT, the flagrantly talented Miami rapper, City Girls member, and self-professed “princess of this shit.”
Nicki is in an LA studio when she hops on the phone with JT and i-D on an October evening. She has just posted an impassioned, perceptive statement about The Grammys’ decision to run “Super Freaky Girl”, not in rap categories but pop, where it stands less of a chance against artists like Adele and Harry Styles. But the mood on the call is warm and reflective as, with no-holds-barred candour, Nicki opens up to JT about hip-hop authenticity debates, the media representation of Black women, and their songwriting collaboration on JT’s new solo music.
JT: Hey, boo.
Nicki Minaj: Hey, how are you?
JT: I’m fine. I’m just nervous, like I don’t be talking to you all the time.
Nicki: (laughs) Hi.
JT: Okay. So, Nicki, what was your thought process with “Super Freaky Girl”, and how did you know that this would be the one?
Nicki: I knew the song would make people happy. Everything that feels nostalgic is making people feel better right now ‘cause we’ve had a couple of tough years. Once I started writing it, it became easy and fun. It’s been a while since I put out a fun song. With the remix, I was like, “The song is called “Super Freaky Girl”, so why don’t we see how other female voices would speak from a freaky girl perspective?” I heard your verse and was blown away. I was so taken aback by your ability to remain yourself on a song that seemed like a beat that you wouldn’t normally do. I’m in a really great place now. I feel like whenever I’m happy, I deliver the best music. And in order for me to deliver the best music for my album – which is coming out soon – I have to tap back into the essence of hip-hop. On the remix of “Super Freaky Girl”, all the girls tapped into that.
JT: You put people who did not have deals on the remix. I think only two of us have deals. That was a big deal for you not to care.
Nicki: I wanna hear girls rap again. Like, just rap. When I did my BET Cypher years ago, I purposely didn’t wear revealing clothes. I wore a sweatsuit. So even though we were being super freaky girls on the song, and we all had fun, y’all really spit.
“That’s when I started doing a lot of pop songs. ‘Super Bass’ wasn’t even supposed to be a single...”
i-D: JT, do you remember when you first heard Nicki’s music?
JT: Okay… I thought I knew her, but I did not. I was a delusional little girl who had this love/hate relationship in my mind with Nicki Minaj. It was because I knew how to rap always, and Nicki knew too. I was so deep in the gutter when Nicki first started. She was the round-the-way girl. She did the “Jump Off” remix, and I was like, “She’s so pretty, she’s so hood.” A couple of years later, you went into your more pop era.
Nicki: Right.
JT: It was a heartbreak moment for a hood girl. It was like, “Damn Nicki, you left us.” Then you came back with your straight hair and your sexy look, and I was like, “Okay, so she still fuck with us.” If you were to ever look down my tweets, there would always be good tweets and bad tweets. That was the disconnection. Pink Friday was me and all my friends’ favourite album. But I think that the album that I didn’t know that much was…
Nicki: The next album.
JT: Right.
Nicki: That’s when I started doing a lot of pop songs. “Super Bass” wasn’t even supposed to be a single, but it became huge. Rather than going back to point A, I thought, “I now need something to be a continuation of ‘Super Bass’.” And so I put out “Starships”. That’s when people in the hip-hop community really felt, “Oh my God, we lost her.”
JT: Yeah.
Nicki: But I want to say something. No one in my life or career has ever explained what you just explained to me that way. You articulated that so well that I was finally able to understand the disconnect and some of the heartbreak that my really hood fans must’ve felt seeing me come from The Come Up DVD and mixtapes and Pink Friday to doing “Starships” and “Pound the Alarm”.
JT: Now I’m an artist I understand much more why you went pop. Being Black and trying to put out rap, and taking it to new heights, is so hard. When you do a pop song you get a different type of respect, and that’s when a band gets bigger. Now there are more female rappers and that’s literally what we do.
Nicki: They’re all doing it now. By the way, not only are they all doing it now, not one has been criticised.
JT: You received so much hate. But now that I am in the industry, I understand your story much more. So when you make “Boss Ass Bitch” or “Lookin Ass”, call yourself a Black Barbie, those songs give us confidence. What makes you want to share that message?
Nicki: There’s always been a lack of representation for Black women: as soon as you start becoming famous, you owe it to the entire culture to say things that other Black women can repeat to make themselves feel great. When you grow up and you’re only seeing people that look a certain way on the covers of magazines, in the movies and on TV, you can start feeling, “Am I not good enough?” It comes from performing as well. Once you see the look on people’s faces when they’re singing your lyrics back to you, and the confidence and happiness they’re having, it makes you want to always empower girls to feel, “Yo, I don’t need a guy for anything. I can put my mind to anything I need to do, and do it just as well as the men on my own.” Except for have sex with a penis, I don’t know about that.
JT: [laughs] That’s definitely what you give, on and off the lyrics. So who are the biggest inspirations for your rap style?
Nicki: Foxy Brown. I still probably at times sound similar to her. I would listen to this woman non-stop. Finding out she was from Trinidad was so freaking amazing to me, because I never imagined that a rapper could be from my country. She’s so precise with her delivery, and so clear. And I really love clarity in raps. The other ones that shaped my overall style a lot are Lil Wayne, especially in the beginning, I used to do a lot of things that were similar to him and Jay-Z. One of my first faves actually was Slick Rick. I’ve always loved the British accent, I still do.
JT: What about Lauryn Hill?
Nicki: I don’t think I rap or sing like Lauryn. But in terms of being my idol… oh my goodness. Two days ago when the blogs posted her singing “To Zion”, and she brought out her son Zion, and his two children, I was sitting there crying. I used to be listening to that song on my little CD player on the train going to high school all the way in Manhattan. I’ve spoken about getting pregnant as a teenager. And if I had a soundtrack to my life, that would be one of the main songs. I listened to her, and how her thought process was to decide to not terminate her pregnancy, even though so many people told her it would be the best thing for her career… I went through an emotional rollercoaster in high school. Even though I ended up walking down the aisle on time with my diploma, I went through a very rough time. Her words got me through it.
“Once you see the look in people’s faces when they’re singing your lyrics back to you, it makes you want to empower girls to feel, ‘Yo, I don’t need a guy for anything.’”
JT: I actually met her kids that night, because I had performed that night, too.
Nicki: Really?
JT: Yes. They were so sweet. They waited on the side at our performance. And I’m like, “Oh my God. Y’all Lauryn Hill’s kids? Y’all know the secret?” [laughs]
Nicki: Wow.
JT: A lot of the time, and right now especially, people are like, “Damn, Nicki don’t care what she say.” Why is it so important for you to speak up?
Nicki: Well, there’s a huge misconception with people who come across as outspoken. The misconception is that we’re so strong. Just because a person fights back, doesn’t mean they’re not afraid. I have suppressed years’ worth of things that I’ve wanted to say. People have lied about me, and I didn’t respond. There’s always been a level of fear there because this is a business. This is not walking down the block and jumping double dutch. This is a job. And the same way people at a nine-to-five can lose their job, and won’t be able to pay their bills, an artist can lose their job. They can lose their spot; they can lose their money. So, there’s always some reservation there. But I’ve decided that I have to speak up now. You know, I see the hip-hop community praise so many other people for speaking up for themselves, but for some reason they seem to have an issue when I do it. Once I realised that there’s that double standard, I decided I don’t give a shit anymore. The last part of it is that if I never rap again, I will still leave this earth as an icon. I guess there is a little less fear now at this point in my career because I realise that my fans aren’t going anywhere. I’ve paid my dues.
JT: Right. That’s correct. You’ve had a lot of eras where you dressed and expressed yourself different. Who was an inspiration for your fashion?
Nicki: One day I remember going into this hair store, in Brooklyn, actually, and I just looked up and saw a bunch of different colour tracks. I was like, “Oh, you know what? I’ve always loved pink.” Pink has always been my happy place. So I got some pink sew-in weave, and I was just sewing it in ‘cause I didn’t have the balls to completely wear pink hair. Prior to that, on the DVDs, I was wearing the deep wave black hair, ‘cause Foxy used to wear her hair like that, with the middle part. Eventually, as my music became more colourful, and I started doing more of the voice changes, I became more daring with my fashion choices. It normally depends on the kind of music I’m putting out. That’s why with The Pinkprint, I scaled back because the music was so much more heartfelt.
JT: What are some things you got planned?
Nicki: The fifth album. I’m not gonna say when it’s gonna come out, but the album will be out soon. And I am working on a nail design company, where people will be able to buy my press-on nail with dope designs. I was already working on that before someone auctioned my press-on nail for $50,000 or whatever they spent on it.
JT: I know that in the past you have done a lot of television appearances; do you plan on doing more with television or film? You went to drama school, right?
Nicki: Definitely. I’ve been speaking to a director about doing something in a movie. In terms of TV, we’ll see. But I love acting, and I’ll never abandon acting for too long. That’s one of my biggest passions.
JT: Yeah, you got the video with you slamming the phone!
Nicki: Mm-hmm [laughs].
i-D: What’s next for you, JT?
JT: I just released a snippet of this freestyle I’ve been holding on to for so long. Nicki actually helped me with a few bars in there.
Nicki: When is that freestyle fully coming out, JT?
JT: I think it’s gonna come out in November. But I be shy. I got anxiety. It takes a lot for me…
Nicki: You need to put it out right away! They need to hear that, chile. It’s so hot. What’s stopping you? Let’s go!
JT: Yeah, I’m gonna put it out…But I be shy. I got anxiety. It takes a lot for me…
Nicki: Stop! Oh, my God…
JT: As for the City Girls, we are putting out an album soon that we’ve been working on for a very long time. We stopped a lot and had a lot of bumps in the road, so it’s gonna come after the tour. We on tour right now.
Nicki: Oh, okay. I’m ready.
i-D: Nicki, do you have a favourite JT verse?
Nicki: I have to be honest, I really love her verse on the “Super Freaky Girl” remix. But I remember when I first heard “Take Yo Man”. The beat was crazy, but I loved how you sounded on that. I wanted to write a verse to it! I just kept on watching the video. JT just seemed so fun, and it’s interesting ‘cause the same things she liked about me in those earlier times is what I saw in her. Just like a sassy, hood chick that you wanna get to know.
JT: I mimicked Salt-N-Pepa on that – I tried to! I was like, “I’m just gonna rap like I’m old school.”
“There’s a huge misconception with people who come across as outspoken. The misconception is that we’re so strong. Just because a person fights back, doesn’t mean they’re not afraid.”
Nicki: Wow. Well, I didn’t know that that’s how you approached it. But that was a great call. And you know what? I remixed Young M.A’s song, “Boss Ass Bitch”, but that would’ve been only the third song that I had remixed by female rappers in, eight or nine years. So, that would’ve been a special one. And the freestyle she’s about to put out really blew me away. JT, what’s the name of that?
JT: It’s “No Bars”.
Nicki: She texted it to me and I was like, “Yikes, what the fuck!” JT, this is how people need to be hearing you. People need to know this is what’s within you. You can’t keep on shying away. I’ve seen people now saying, “JT’s been killing every feature verse she’s been on.” But when they hear this, they’ll understand why I’ve been going so hard for her. But JT, it really bothers me that you are still having anxiety about putting out music. You cannot let who people think you are talking to in a song, or somebody’s fan base, stop you from being great. Like, do you understand one day you gonna look back at this time in your life and be like, “What the fuck was I thinking being nervous?”
JT: Mm, yeah.
Nicki: You see the people who you worried about? They’re not worried about you when it’s time for them to put out their shit. So you gotta stop thinking like that. Don’t even speak those types of words over your life.
JT: Yeah. I’ll be looking forward to everything – the album of course. I was literally in prison when Queen came out.
Nicki: [laughs] Wow.
JT: I watched you perform at the 2018 VMAs on TV in prison.
Nicki: Thank you. I really appreciate you, my fellow Sag. And keep on doing your thang. Say hi to Uzi for me.
JT: I will, thank you so much. Goodnight y’all!
Credits
Introduction Owen Myers
Photography Luis Alberto Rodriguez
Fashion Carlos Nazario
Hair Jacob Dillon
Manicurist Yvett Garcia
Pedicurist Michelle Escalera
Set design Spencer Vrooman
Photography assistance Khalilah Pianta and Essence Moseley
Digital technician Pamela Grant
Lighting technician Kyle May
Fashion assistance Christine Nicholson, Alexa Levine, Ashley Zielinski, Nicole Alexander, Yvonne Quinones, Emilia Isabel Fishburn and Melina Frangos
Tailor Hasmik Kourinian
Set design assistance Jeremy Reimnitz, Daviel Shy and Billy Czyzyk
Production Rosco Production
Casting director Samuel Ellis Scheinman for DMCASTING