Music Mystery: Nicki Minaj stakes a claim for female sexuality
This essay is for mature audiences only
Nicki Minaj rips the beat and some of the prevideo chatter from Sir Mix-a-Lot’s 1992 hit “Baby Got Back” and incorporates it into her sequel to the cult song. “Anaconda” is an excellent answer to “Baby Got Back,” and by using imagery from Mix-a-Lot’s video, Minaj clearly shows that she knows the song’s history and its implications for women. While the Mix-a-Lot’s anthem is often seen as empowering to women of larger body proportions, the fact of the matter is that by glorifying one part, he effectively objectifies women.
Minaj’s answer is to create the stories that should naturally result from Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back.” Guys with money doing drugs and giving Minaj, or the character in the song, things that are “real, real, real” while Minaj takes advantage of the lifestyle and of their large penises. She feels nothing like love for these guys. They are just a means to material, and presumably sexual, gratification.
Minaj does this with a complaint in her lyrics as the syllables are drawn out at the end of the verse. She also has a sneer on her face, especially as she fails at the attempt to deep throat a banana. Then there is that horrible (evil, death) cackle of a laugh. Minaj’s anger and disdain for the very subject that she is outwardly glorifying come through, especially as the music speeds up. Here voice becomes angrier, and she glares more at the camera. Minaj exudes sex but shows none of the nuances that go with it.
“Anaconda” is not a nice video. It is a titillating satire, loaded with cynicism, exploring the taboo subject of women using sex as power. While Minaj is clearly pushing the envelope with her video that is both angry and comical, she is also making a statement about how women are perceived. By owning the taboo, Minaj is taking back the freedom that women lose when society requires them to be something that may or may not be true to their nature.
There is always the possibility that, in an effort to justify my own prurient interest in a video by an artist I would not watch, I have given too much credit to Minaj and her team. However, if you watch the images presented in Minaj’s video and those found in “Baby Got Back,” you may just find something that is more than just a popular dance song with a naughty subject matter.
Nicki Minaj rips the beat and some of the prevideo chatter from Sir Mix-a-Lot’s 1992 hit “Baby Got Back” and incorporates it into her sequel to the cult song. “Anaconda” is an excellent answer to “Baby Got Back,” and by using imagery from Mix-a-Lot’s video, Minaj clearly shows that she knows the song’s history and its implications for women. While the Mix-a-Lot’s anthem is often seen as empowering to women of larger body proportions, the fact of the matter is that by glorifying one part, he effectively objectifies women.
Minaj’s answer is to create the stories that should naturally result from Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back.” Guys with money doing drugs and giving Minaj, or the character in the song, things that are “real, real, real” while Minaj takes advantage of the lifestyle and of their large penises. She feels nothing like love for these guys. They are just a means to material, and presumably sexual, gratification.
Minaj does this with a complaint in her lyrics as the syllables are drawn out at the end of the verse. She also has a sneer on her face, especially as she fails at the attempt to deep throat a banana. Then there is that horrible (evil, death) cackle of a laugh. Minaj’s anger and disdain for the very subject that she is outwardly glorifying come through, especially as the music speeds up. Here voice becomes angrier, and she glares more at the camera. Minaj exudes sex but shows none of the nuances that go with it.
“Anaconda” is not a nice video. It is a titillating satire, loaded with cynicism, exploring the taboo subject of women using sex as power. While Minaj is clearly pushing the envelope with her video that is both angry and comical, she is also making a statement about how women are perceived. By owning the taboo, Minaj is taking back the freedom that women lose when society requires them to be something that may or may not be true to their nature.
There is always the possibility that, in an effort to justify my own prurient interest in a video by an artist I would not watch, I have given too much credit to Minaj and her team. However, if you watch the images presented in Minaj’s video and those found in “Baby Got Back,” you may just find something that is more than just a popular dance song with a naughty subject matter.