Y’all better stop re-enacting the stories told and sold in hip hop music. Pimp C shouted from the rooftop for years, The Game said it in his Drink Champs interview, and now, Nicki Minaj is another rapper that’s attempting to wake the masses with the message that hip hop is to be received as art and entertainment, not a blueprint for real life.
It’s a much needed reminder given that there are young people all over the world tatting up their faces, toting blickies, popping pills, and causing unnecessary disturbances and deaths all in an effort to match the supposed lifestyle of their favorite rapper.
The stereotypical, standard lifestyle of hip hop is a direct testing of universal laws when music listeners are chanting destructive lyrics over and over again, manifesting a life that’s made for entertainment, not for people with families, jobs, and major consequences for breaking laws.
Nicki Minaj, who appears to have had enough of the industry shenanigans, speaks to Joe Budden in an ultra transparent interview.
“I was one of the first people saying, ‘Oh, I’m not these people’s parents.’ But now I get it. I look at it from a different perspective,” Minaj said in the interview. “Superstars inadvertently become role models, no matter what. You can be the weirdest druggie in the world, if they like your music, they’re listening to it over and over again — it’s programming. And they might try some of those things they hear you talk about.”
She recalls a time when Future revealed he doesn’t use drugs like he raps about in his music.
“I remember I had a conversation with Future one time in the studio and he said something that I’ll never forget — and he laughed while he said it. He was like, ‘Yeah, you know people be thinking I’m really doing a lot of drugs because I rap about it all the time. But, they don’t even be knowing I’m a lite weight.”
Despite admitting that artists are role models, she still believes that people should be held accountable for the decisions they make in their personal lives. Minaj uses the world of television and film for example.
“Could you imagine if we held film directors accountable for all the f—–g murders they put in their movies?” she said. “Rap is the only genre of music, rap is the only culture, that from the beginning of time has been vilified.”
Minaj proceeds to address the unfairness of the industry, tapping on issues of cultural appropriation, racism towards Black entertainers, and systemic blackballing in the music industry.
Watch the Interview Below:
There was a time when hip hop was speaking from a real place as a voice for those who did not have a platform. Before hip hop became a commodity to major record labels, there were a handful of rappers bringing awareness to the conditions of impoverished neighborhoods and issues deserving our attention, such police brutality and mental health. That population quickly subsided when the commercialization of rap promoted violence and drugs.
Rap Of The Past:
Grandmaster Flash – The Message
Geto Boys – Mind Playing Tricks On Me
