A nice Morning Edition piece from our pal Jay Smooth and Maura Johnston on the rapper Nicki Minaj. The frame is exactly what one would expect (“a female rapper in sexist hip-hop?!”), but Jay and Johnston are both too smart to fall into cliche. Just as I was thinking, “I wish they would mention that she can spit,” Jay said “she can spit.”
The comments may be the best part. Specifically the guy who basically admits he was only familiar with Minaj because of a picture in his computer’s “beautiful women folder.” And then he says “we all know what that’s for (can I say that?)”. YES. You can say that, and you are the greatest NPR commenter ever. I mean, I love Bahamadia as much as the next guy, but her two albums came out what? Ten years ago? And I get it: Jean Grae is also a woman and she’s not famous and hip-hop vs. rap and SNNNOOOOOOOOOOOZE.
Seriously: some sharp stuff from Jay Smooth and Maura Johnston.