Nicki Minaj Tried to Address Her Haters, but Ultimately Failed

I tuned into see Nicki Minaj as she was a trending topic on Twitter and was getting up to 7,000 views at one time on USTREAM. In fact her videos are still on the front page. If nothing else if you had not known anything about USTREAM so far you may because you clicked on a link to see Nicki on the site. ThisIs50.com took a clip off of that stream where she attempts to address her haters and I am still scratching my head over this one.

First off when I clicked on the video I was treated to Nicki Minaj in a green wig over at what appeared to be a hotel somewhere and that was it. She said some things here and there, responded to her fans "Team" this city or that one, but there was nothing interesting going on. Nicki says that pundits make rap out to be some "clown s*" when they feed into people talking about and that she refuses to address anyone by name but if that is the case then why does she respond to her criticism at all?

The bottom line may be that Nicki is not strong enough to go at anyone. Anyone can have some cool wordplay when it has been rehearsed, but I have yet to hear Nicki has said that shows that she is anything but a mainstream artist. To be completely honest there is nothing wrong with being a mainstream artist, and other females in the rap game are going at Nicki for the same reason that women always go at each other, and that is out of jealousy. I do not particularly care for Nicki one way or the other, but some people truly hate her with everything that they have. I don't think that Nicki is the best role model for young Black Women with her particular brand of "fakeness"; wearing wigs and her on and off British accent, and the whole Barbie thing, but then again the game has not had a positive role model since Lauryn Hill.

I still stand by my earlier post. You may love Lil' Kim, but you can't honestly say that she was better for the game than Nicki, and that she was any better of a role model. Nicki is playing the game that radio programmers play with the cards that she was dealt. Nicki has a long way to go as an artist, her last record was an abomination and if this is any sign of things to come her first solo record is going to leave hard core rap fans wanting more. However I have a feeling that this is what her fans want, and what they are willing to accept. Will it suck as a record, probably so, but will fans buy it and will she have a huge opening day, of course she will.

Nicki's fans do not really want what the rest of us consider to be authentic hip-hop, and Nicki probably will not deliver that to them. What people fail to realize, is that audiences are not asking for more out of their artists. If Nicki had tried what she is doing now back in the day she would not have gotten any airplay at all, but in today's climate there is no reason for her to give us anything she has not to date. Despite having 30 solid years of good hip-hop behind the younger children listening to the radio now either do not care about "real hip-hop" or are too ignorant and naive to know good lyrics when they hear it. We are still in the golden age of hip-hop beats 20 years after the fact.

People want ear candy, and they want to know that their favorite artist is out there on a limb somewhere. Nicki says that the mental ward is looking for her, and that is what they respond to. Being crazy is no substitute for talent, unless you believe that you need to be crazy to be talented. I like the idea that Nicki is still marketing herself, but at some point we need to see if she is truly capable of creating real art ...