A Dare.
I do not want Nicki Minaj to be the next Lauryn Hill or MC Lyte, I want her to rap as if women like Assata Shakur and Toni Morrison exist.
“The Miss-Education of a Barbie" is a call to action not only for Nicki Minaj but to all women in the entertainment industry.
My poem targets Nicki Minaj because I am a long time fan and follower of her work. I recognize and applaud her lyrical abilities and the affect she has on women older and younger than myself. If we, as an audience, do not hold up a mirror to our artists, then who will?
The "Miss-Education of a Barbie" questions the message that Nicki Minaj is relaying to her listeners. If Nicki Minaj seeks to simply entertain audiences with shallow concepts then my poem can be written off as irrelevant to her and her fans alike. However, if she seeks to make a difference in musical history and in the lives of her fans around the world then my piece questions her methods of doing so.
Her "Barbie" image is an objectification of womanhood. How can we expect our male rappers to pay homage and respect to women when the voice that is representing us is tainted with sexual innuendos and “child’s play?”
Most rappers say in response to this "look, I didn’t ask to be anyone’s role model, I am just doing me like always." for Nicki, this isn’t true, she did ask to be famous. She engineered herself to be more marketable so that this could happen. Now that it happened, what will she do with that power? Will she be self-serving at the expense of her fans? Or will she be both entertaining, sexy and socially progressive for women? We don't want the Nicki we know to go away, we want the Nicki we know to be 3 Dimensional.
W.E.B. DuBois said all art is propaganda and should be used to uplift and challenge the African American community, and if art does not do such it is useless. Nicki Minaj is too powerful to be useless.
My piece is not a “diss,” it is a dare.
I dare Nicki Minaj to be a PHENOMENAL WOMAN and not a phenomenal "Barbie."
-Jasmine Mans
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