
However, the music video more accurately displays the way in which Nicki is reversing gender roles.
I am not sure if the song by itself succeeds in fulfilling Nicki’s subversive aims. Thus, she is trying to subvert gender role stereotypes in this way. Since it is Nicki’s song, she is essentially sexually objectifying her own image, claiming her sex appeal and empowering herself. Drake’s verse is almost exclusively focused on the sexual appeal of women with curvy body figures, “BBW”. Not only does she focus on her body image but Drake and Lil Wayne focus on it as well. Again, she emphasizes her curvy body figure, as the chorus states “thick bitches only”. However, she notes that she has another man. She begins the song by talking about having a threeway with Drake and Wayne. Nicki Minaj’s song Only features male rappers, Drake, Lil Wayne, and Chris Brown. Sexual Imagery: Emphasis on Butt, Video Screenshot, 2:20 Drake, Video Screenshot, 3:35 Emphasis on Butt, Video Screenshot, 3:00 Emphasis on Curvy Image, Video Screenshot, 1:56
I let him hit it cause he hang, hang, hang. Let him eat it with his grills, and he telling me to chill Come through and fuck him in my automobile. My anaconda don’t want none unless you got buns, hun. Fuck the skinny bitches! Fuck the skinny bitches in the club!. I believe that was Nicki’s intention as this song clearly has elements of hip-hop feminism. However, the song and video especially, undoubtedly challenge respectability politics, as the content is extremely explicit (not something you would want kids watching at a young age). In this way, Nicki and women with similar body images reclaim their sexual agency. Overall, the song by itself can be seen as extremely powerful for women with curvy body figures that stray from beauty norms. Yet, here again, the focus is placed on large butts and the sexual appeal that goes along with them. Other sexual images are used such a white coconut milk (eliciting seaman) and phallic bananas. The music video sets up a jungle style theme in which Nicki is shown twerking several times. Instead, she unapologetically states, “Fuck you if you skinny bitches” towards the end of the song. Nicki is embracing her body figure in a percussive way as she challenges the American beauty ideal of the extremely thin female. This song points to the black reclamation of sexual agency and desire found in hip-hop feminism. However, the focus of the overall song seems to be about large butts as she talks about her own curvy body figure in comparison to “boney” smaller females. She raps about Micheal’s large penis using the metaphor of an Anaconda. Nicki Minaj’s song Anaconda (2014), has two verses that tell brief tales of her having sex with two guys, Troy and Micheal, in her automobile. By critically analyzing these songs and videos through the lens of hip-hop feminism we can see that elements of her music are empowering while others are detrimental and insensitive. Which begs the question, when is female rap subversive in nature and beneficial and when is it detrimental? Nicki Minaj’s popular songs and music videos, Anaconda, Only, and Feeling Myself offer insights into the complexity of this question. Although the logic behind reclamation of agency is sound, there is still considerable backlash from respectability politics. Thus, Hip-Hop feminism aims to reclaim Black women’s sexual agency. In this system, a false narrative has been created in which “black and brown bodies have been historically configured as excessive, with unrestrained desires” (Durham et al. Politics of respectability have been used by African American Women as a way to progress in the face of oppression by appealing to systems of power that are in place, i.e. Furthermore, there is a tangible clash between respectability politics and hip-hop feminism. Nicki Minaj’s songs and lyrics emulate hip-hop feminism as it functions in this percussive fashion.
Durham argues that Hip-hop feminism is considered a percussive form of feminism in that it is both disruptive and generative.
Which is defined as “a cultural, intellectual, and political movement grounded in the situated knowledge of women of color (who)… challenge, resist, and mobilize collectives to dismantle systems of exploitation” (Durham et al., pg. Her unapologetic lyrics offer us insight into the world of hip-hop feminism. Nick Minaj has become one of the most influential female rappers of the 21st century.