GQ Magazine, Nicki Minaj - Nicki Minaj, Cheeky Genius lyrics

Nicki Minaj's eyeliner is a
Precision event, a marvel
As if drawn on by the kind of
Pre-programmed robot arm used
For laparoscopic surgeries
It is a peacock navy color
Dark and shiny and full, extending
Maybe a not-outrageous half centimeter up
From the top lid
Extending an additional still not-crazy three
Centimeters outward past where
Her eyes end her eyelashes are even and
Delicate, like wisps from a dandelion
And I can't recall if I've ever seen
Her without prosthetic versions i have
Had plenty of time to search my memory
Though, because here on this couch
In this room, during this interview, with
Me sitting next to her
Nicki Minaj has fallen asleep



We are at Barclays Center in one of
The dressing rooms, which are low
Low beneath Brooklyn
Most are named after streets
And neighborhoods in the
Borough during the rehearsals
For Fashion Rocks, the New York
Fashion Week concert fund raiser
The halls were filled with publicists and
Escorts who had to pretend not
To be dazzled by those
They were escorting minaj
Had walked in a few minutes before
Tiny next to her assistant and
Her muscle, wearing black sunglasses
A trucker hat cocked to the side
And a T-shirt with the
Periodic table box for carbon she had been
Led straight into the DeKalb dressing room
Named for the street that bisects
A couple of local neighborhoods now
Populated by yuppies but
That still contain housing projects
Her smile is a
Warm sun as is this room the temperature in
Here has been set to about 300 degrees
At Nicki's request she says she
Gets cold a lot

Next door to her is the Canarsie
Dressing room I actually grew
Up in Canarsie it's still a
Dump and inside is Usher
Who at the MTV Video Music Awards
Last month slapped Nicki's ass
And continues to
Slap it endlessly in GIFs all over
The Internet nicki was the star of
The VMAs that night her hot
Humpy performance of "Anaconda" was part of
A medley, and it was followed by a quick
Costume change that didn't quite reach
Completion: She had to pinch
The two breast-covering
Flaps of her black dress closed
Because her cue
For the finale of the opener, "Bang Bang
" with Jessie J and Ariana Grande, came
Before she could zip she power-walked in like
A boss, joining the other two onstage
Both of them so skinny and with
Such rough angles and straight
Edges and reaching so hard for
Some soul nicki destroyed them

This is what she does she takes a pretty good
Song, wait's until you are
Popping along to it, then a little longer
Until it feels repetitive and
You start to see through to it's flaws, and
Then boom, she comes in and makes
It a completely different
Song a better song she is the best
Part even of great songs
Her featured verse on
Kanye West's "Monster" is the
Best of several
Including ones by Jay Z and Rick Ross she
Did that song because she was asked and
Because "Kanye's a genius" She
Did "Bang Bang"
Because she "knew it would be big"

In the dressing room on the other
Side of Nicki's, the Empire, named after a
Boulevard in Brooklyn that sounds
Regal but is
Even rougher than Canarsie ever was
Is JLo i could write a dissertation about the
Two seconds during which MTV caught
JLo watching Nicki do
"Anaconda" at the VMAs perhaps
JLo, in those seconds
Stares at Nicki and considers her own youth
And also that this is what she has wrought
That back when she brought
This whole butt thing
Into the mainstream all those years ago
She went out of her way to be discreet
To keep us wanting more, to never let us
Look her ass directly in it's eye
That it was an ass
Of implication and innuendo
That, if she may
She made asses safe for the white folks at
Home in a way they never had been
Before who knew that just giving
The people what they
Wanted would yield such success?
In those two seconds
JLo's look is a mixture of pride and despair

It has been counterpointed to me
That perhaps JLo was
Just thinking of how far we'd all come
That now we can all celebrate our asses
I don't know maybe
If she didn't have a new album out
I'd agree contact me to debate this I will
Make myself available i want to talk
About asses so much i want to know
What it is we're telling the world
When we use our asses in the way
That Nicki has been using her ass
When they are not the accent in a
Video but the point of it

And most of all, of course
I want to know Nicki's
Thoughts on this i was awake
There in the DeKalb
And I had questions she was
Asleep, which was fine
I suppose, because she didn't
Appear to have answers, anyway

The Versus Versace party she'd attended the
Night before our interview had
Yielded a plastic case filled with
M&M's an odd party favor
Something I've received at bar mitzvahs
She pulled it out of
Her purse as we talked in
The basement of Barclays
And this would be my only indication that she
Recognized she needed a boost the
Case was taped closed, so I offered
To open it for her her
Nails, a pointy taupe manicure, were making
It hard we ate some together
And she noticed that they each had
The Versus lion insignia on them "Isn't
That crazy, " she said, impressed

She's into branding these days
Particularly her
Own in the "Anaconda" video
There are no fewer than
Five products placed prominently
For advertising: her Beats by Dre
Speakers imprint and her Moscato
But also a Victoria's Secret
Bra, some Air Jordans
And a baffling "teatox" drink called MateFit
(dialysis machine sold separately) it's
Not exactly seamless integration
And at times it is
So overt that it feels like a
Comment on the culture of branding
Maybe some poignant thought about
Sex and consumerism?

Nope "My management team has a division that
Has a guy that his main focus
Is to go out there and find
New brands for me to do
Business with or to find brands that would
Like to be in our videos
And contribute to our budget, " she
Says it's like a Kickstarter
But for a multi-millionaire

She was not born wealthy nicki, 31, grew
Up in Queens and attended LaGuardia
The high school from Fame she says her father
Once tried to burn down her house
While her mother was inside she did odd
Jobs after school: She was a customer-service
Rep for a while, but that didn't go
Great "I like dealing with people, but
I don't really like a lot of bullshit
So maybe customer service wasn't the best
Job for me" She was
Fired from a waitressing job at
A Red Lobster after
She followed a couple who had taken her
Pen into the parking lot and then
Flipped them the bird i asked her if
It was a special pen "No
" she said "It was the principle"

She came to prominence in
Outsize, italic, caps-lock
Technicolor exaggeration pink wigs
Outrageous outfit's
Eyelashes that were a comment about eyelashes
She had different personas alter egos
She called them with names and
Backstories she did funny accents
And was willing to
Make herself beautiful, then
Grotesque, then absurd, then
Back again and here she is now, demure
By comparison, just plain
Old black extensions
Just a T-shirt about carbon

"I always thought that by the time
I put out a third album, i would want
To come back to natural hair and natural
Makeup, " she told me "I thought
I will shock the world again and just be
More toned down i thought that would
Be more shocking than to keep on doing
Exactly what they had already seen"

She no longer feels as if she needs
To hide behind outrageousness this next
Chapter is about success nicki Minaj is
Rap's first and only female mogul
Having parlayed all your ogling into
A spot on Forbes's Cash Kings list the only
Person of our gender paid well enough to
Be so honored she is the top-charting woman
In rap, a top-charting rapper in general
And a crossover phenomenon who can go back
And forth between hip-hop and pop the
Way Taylor Swift can no longer go back
And forth between country and pop

A few days earlier
She'd been in Los Angeles finishing
Up her third album, The
Pinkprint, out this month
And she's changed things "a
Billion times" because she's
A perfectionist her first two albums were big
Hit's, platinum sellers already The Pinkprint
Has yielded a chart-topping
Single and an unstoppable meme
The "Anaconda" cover
Art features Nicki, pants nowhere
In sight, squatting, photographed
From behind but also a quieter Nicki
And certainly a more tired one she
Can't be baited into talking
Shit about anyone anymore she answers
Questions simply and succinctly

Now that we have charted her
Rise as a cultural force
It is time to ask Nicki exactly what she's
Trying to say if the "Anaconda" cover
Is the autumn of her flamboyance
It is time to get what we've
Wanted all along: an explanation of what
Exactly is going on here
Which is something I will ask her
The minute she wakes up

To be completely accurate
She never fell into actual REM sleep during
Our interview, but at four separate
Times she dozed off
Her head jerking awake at just the
Moment it had started to
Dip in between, she was what I could call
Low-key and reserved, because I am generous
But the picture looked like this:
Those eyelids, falling
Falling over eyes that
Would cross momentarily
Closing for a moment but staying
Too long a blink
That lasted a few blinks longer than a blink

But also, to be completely fair
I'm not sure how she was upright
At all this was the middle
Of New York Fashion Week
And if you followed
Her Instagram, every few hours it was a
New event with a new dress
New hair, new makeup it was parties
All night, all the air-kissing
All the red carpets

And of course all this fancy dress-up plays
Into the sort of bodily performance
Art she's been doing onstage and in
Her videos since her first mixtape
In 2007 that release
Was called Playtime Is Over
And on the cover she was a plastic doll in
A box she has put herself in a
Barbie box at least twice, actually, the
Second time in a video with
Mariah Carey she is
Among the few living women
In Kanye's "Monster" video
Which is a landscape of female corpses
"the strangest video I ever
Shot" and there are two of her in
It one her ties up and whips
The other her with a riding crop and
Now comes this song and video
Which are clearly about the female
Form and the male obsession
With it she must have something
To say about this

No, she says, it's just a
Song, there's no hidden meaning
No layer beneath "She" Nicki's
Character in the
Video "is just talking about two guys
That she dated in the past and
What they're good at and what
They bought her and what they said
To her it's just cheeky
Like a funny story" Cheeky she has
To be messing with me

But "Anaconda" samples a
Song that's literally
Called "Baby Got Back" There
Must be some thought given to
This part of the body
Considering all the attention
It receives choreography
Points to it she boosts it
Up and it receives applause the song
Is a five-minute gender-studies symposium

But Nicki shakes her head: "All it says is
'My anaconda don't' " Why are we
Talking about asses? she seems to
Be saying sure, there is
A direct, not inferred, reference in
Her lyrics to "salad tossing"
Which, to be clear
Is the act of being anally probed
By someone else's tongue but
This is a song about reptiles
Don't be such an intellectual!

Okay, fine you can't deny the video
Though you can't pretend that
There isn't some extreme
Sexual commentary going on in the video
Right? A steamy women's-only jungle
Mecca, aerobic slithering
Drumming on a dancer's ass
There, in the video
Nicki is twerking and crawling
Across the floor to poor, hapless Drake
Sitting in a puddle of his own
Anticipatory blue balls she
Slaps him before he can touch her
And that has to mean something

"I knew that I wanted a gym theme"
Shrug "And that's that" That's that
Guys that's that

She sees me grasping, and maybe she
Feels a little sorry for me
So she offers me this: "I think
The video is about what girls
Do" She is poking at a
Salad that hasn't been tossed
(The dressing came on the side)
"Girls love being with other
Girls, and when you go back
To us being younger
We would have slumber parties and we'd
Be dancing with our friends"
(I'll take her word for it the slumber
Parties were not jungle-themed in Canarsie)

You heard it here first "Anaconda" is about a
Snake, and also about
A woman's ex-boyfriends
And the video is just one
Big slumber party you
Can release a record cover
Into the atmosphere that
Makes all who see it
So shocked and discomforted
That their only way to metabolize it is
To turn it into the
World's fastest-spreading meme, to the point
Where her squatting form ends up
On a polo shirt
Right where the little crocodile
Usually goes you can do all this
And still you can look someone
In the eye and say that it's
Not cynical in the least
That it's not a comment on gender
Or sex or the culture or
Anything double shrug these are not
The droids you're looking for

"I don't know what there is
To really talk about
" she says "I'm being serious i just see
The video as being a normal video"

We are winding down
Because it's time for Nicki
To go rehearse for
This performance, she has incorporated male
Dancers "I went in yesterday
Finally saw the dance for the first time
And I saw the guys doing all this
Sexy stuff that I wasn't a part
Of and I said, 'Hello
Why aren't they humping me on the stage?' "
The choreographer didn't realize that
This was something
She might want she does: "We've got to
Give them something to talk about again"

So it's all for shock, it's all for talk
It's all for hashtags and memes not even a
Contrived statement which is fine
It's just that most people at least
Pretend there's something they're
Trying to say and so I'm left to wonder
Where is the woman who pronounced in
An MTV documentary
That she won't stand for disrespect
That she won't accept being given pickle
Juice at a photo shoot? Where is the
Philosophy and the fire? And there
In the DeKalb, where it is so
Hot I can see sound
I start to wonder if I'm losing
It i look over to ask Nicki, to suggest
That maybe I should take a nap, too
And we can let our unconsciouses figure this
Out I could be her hype man
But for naps! except she is out again

The next night, at Fashion Rocks
JLo went on before Nicki
The song she performed
Was called "Booty, " and the only
Lyrics I could discern were Big, big booty
What you got a big booty again and again
JLo marking her
Territory if you could troll Nicki
Minaj through a song
This was it jLo wore a short
Dress and did a move
You mostly see strippers do on
Cop shows I'll call
It the squatted twerk: knees bent, up
Down up down up down
Butt close to the ground but
Never touching it we
Clapped loudly for this a woman
Behind me who has no
Idea how the record-promotion business works
Panted to her companion
"I hope Nicki does 'Anaconda' "

Right before I left her the previous
Night, Nicki had stopped me, and maybe
Because she felt bad for me and
Maybe because she, too, is generous
She had given me two things a ticket
To this show and this tiny morsel:

"I'm chopping up the banana
Did you realize that?"

What? What banana?

In the "Anaconda" video
She says "At first I'm being sexual
With the banana, and then it's like, 'Ha ha
No' " I ask if she's referring to how
The Drake scene immediately
Follows the kitchen
Scene "yeah, that was important for us
To show in the kitchen scene
Because it's always about the
Female taking back the power, and if you want
To be flirty and funny that's fine
But always keeping the power and
The control in everything"

Maybe she had been messing with me all along

Or maybe she was simply telling me that it is
Not her job to explain herself i had
Been warned before the interview
That I shouldn't ask
About her ass, that she finds it degrading
And I had chalked up her reticence
To that but maybe this
Is what she finds degrading: to work day
And night to get those features down
To make actual magic and to make it come
Out in full articulation, every
Syllable, every accent
Meticulously applied to save
Someone else's song in the third
Act, to entertain you
Only to have some asshole come down
To the DeKalb dressing room in
The two hours that she could
Have spent taking a real
Nap, not an upright one
And ask her what she means
When she's doing the thing she does must she
Do everything? She's not
Hiding anything look at her
She literally isn't hiding anything it's all
There for you to see do
Some of the work yourself
People she's busy running her brand
She's inspiring a meme that
Will keep us busy for months she is
Tasting the Moscato and smelling the Nicki
Minaj perfume that comes in
Miniature busts of
Nicki Minaj she is not here
For your gender-studies symposium it
Is not her job to tell you who the eff
She is and she's exhausted she is
Only made of carbon after all
Just like you and me

She came out in her sparkle bra
Tearing fiercely across the stage
"Bwoy twoy named Trwoy
Used to live in Detrwoit…" JLo was
Already re-seated and watching
The performance, and at first she clapped
Along lazily, but then stopped for
A variety of reasons, it is hard to
Parse what might be going on in JLo's
Mind by looking at her face
But when Nicki launched into her
Own dancer backed squatted
Twerk a younger twerk
A bouncier twerk I swear I saw JLo's
Left eyelid blink out of sequence
With her right one
A subdermal twitch indicating that perhaps
She'd had a rage stroke

Meanwhile, onstage
Nicki was hoisted up by the male
Dancers, arms in the air in full expression
And the sunshine of her smile shone into
The arena she was all rested up