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  • Nicki Minaj Is All Over Megan Thee Stallion’s Latest Song…Without Being an Actual Feature, Or: Megan Thee Stallion Continues Her Cobra Motif With “Hiss”

    Nicki Minaj Is All Over Megan Thee Stallion’s Latest Song…Without Being an Actual Feature, Or: Megan Thee Stallion Continues Her Cobra Motif With “Hiss”

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    After joining in for a feature on “new queen bee” (not) Reneé Rapp’s “Not My Fault,” some listeners might have been misled into thinking Megan Thee Stallion had gone soft. But her new pattern of single releases seems to be “hard, soft, hard,” if we’re going by “Cobra,” “Not My Fault” and, now, “Hiss.” The latter obviously being thematically  in line with “Cobra” based on the title alone. And yet, the “snake” Megan Thee Stallion has in mind as inspiration for this song is one, Nicki Minaj. While some might have been foolish enough to believe that there was harmony between the two rappers after they collaborated on 2019’s hit of the summer, “Hot Girl Summer,” there is often a pattern with Nicki when it comes to alienating the female rappers who have come up after her. Especially the ones she’s willing to collaborate with at the outset of their careers. Once upon a time, that was Cardi B, who quickly turned from “friend” to foe after 2017’s “MotorSport.” A song that Cardi was added to later in the creation process, and that Minaj felt she should have been more grateful for. 

    By 2018, the two famously got into a scuffle at an event for New York Fashion Week, prompting Cardi to release a series of videos in the aftermath defending herself and more fully speaking on their beef with comments like, “You lie so much you can’t even keep up with lies.” It seems Megan Thee Stallion, who collaborated with Cardi one year after “Hot Girl Summer” on “WAP” (and then again on 2023’s “Bongos”), would tend to agree. Along with the many venomous (snake pun intended) outcries about how Minaj is both enabling and defending a sexual predator. Which brings us to the most scandalizing (for Nicki and beef-lovers alike) line of all from “Hiss”: “These hoes don’t be mad at Megan, these hoes mad at Megan’s Law.” A direct aim and hit at Nicki for her husband, Kenneth Petty, not registering as a sex offender upon moving to California in order to be with her. This deliberate failure on his part was considered a federal offense. Thus, he was sentenced with three years of probation and one year of house arrest. Plus a $55,000 fine that Minaj undoubtedly paid.

    Thee Stallion’s shade-throwing might seem like a non sequitur to some, but hints of contention have been publicly brewing at least since Minaj’s 2023 single, “Red Ruby Da Sleeze,” on which she raps, “I don’t fuck with horses since Christopher Reeve.” Stallion, horses…you get it. To cinch the allusion, Minaj also added, “Dorito bitches mad that they not chose.” Megan, as it happens, has an endorsement deal with Doritos (and all the other Flamin’ Hot products in the Frito Lay stable). So, not exactly subtle. Thus, Megan meets that “subtlety” and raises it on “Hiss.” Which is why she comes for Minaj’s “okayness” with sex offenders (including her brother, Jelani Maraj). She makes no mention, however, of Minaj’s beef with her stemming from, per Minaj’s account, the time Megan told her to drink alcohol while pregnant and get an abortion so she could really have a good time. It seems Minaj sat on that for a while and decided it was wildly inappropriate, even if said in jest (and probably because Thee Stallion didn’t want her to have a sex offender’s baby…so, if you think about it, it was coming from an inherently good place). Hence, “Red Ruby Da Sleeze.” But Minaj didn’t seem to bargain for Megan Thee Stallion actually lying in wait (like a cobra) to pounce when the time was right. And oh, how it was right for poking the bear that is Minaj’s furor on social media once she gets started. But all of that attention she gave Megan only worked to the latter’s advantage, with the video for “Hiss” becoming the number one trending video on YouTube the day after its release. Having warned us that she’s the “Black Regina George,” Thee Stallion dropped the equivalent of every page (photocopied ad infinitum) in the Burn Book into the public space with this song and video. 

    Directed by Douglas Bernardt (who also did “Cobra”), the video opens on a snake’s egg hatching (just as the video for “Cobra” ended on the image of one hatching). And who else should be inside of it but Megan herself? As we see her float inside the amniotic fluid, Megan paints the picture, “I feel like Mariah Carey/Got these niggas so obsessed/My pussy so famous, might get managed by Kris Jenner next/He can’t move on, can’t let it go/He hooked nose full of that Tina Snow/And since niggas need Megan help to make money/Bitch, come be my ho.” Invoking Mariah’s name from the outset was already an immediate dig at Nicki, who famously had beef with Mariah during the filming of American Idol starting in 2012. Though, just two years before, the sparring duo came together for a remix of a Mariah song called “Up Out My Face.” Released even before Minaj’s debut album, Pink Friday, it established the fact that “Barbie” was rising to the top as fast as some of her current competitors are now. This includes Ice Spice, who is theoretically “Team Nicki” after collaborating on “Princess Diana” and “Barbie World” with her. Though she might find herself eventually in a war with Nicki too, if we’re to go by the pattern of Cardi and Megan, both of whom Nicki collab’d with at the beginning of their mainstream musical journeys as well. But back to Mariah, who is strategically mentioned by Megan as an allusion to another feud and to make a callback to Carey’s 2009 single, “Obsessed,” which took shots at Eminem (both in the song and its accompanying music video). A rapper who would appear alongside Nicki on Pink Friday with “Roman’s Revenge.” How…circular. At least when it comes to making correlations based on “Hiss.”

    And Thee Stallion also wants the correlation to be made that she’s still talking about Nicki (by referencing “Hot Girl Summer”) during one of the final verses when she raps, “Ever since I claimed the summer, all you bitches want a season/Ask a ho why she don’t like me, bet she can’t give you a reason.” But if Minaj didn’t have one before, she certainly has one now…and will no doubt be using this as cannon fodder in the future. Not just for attacking her, but also her “known associates.” Namely, Drake. Who gets majorly trolled by Megan in the verse, “All these lil’ rap niggas so fraud [perhaps a nod to the Nicki/Drake song “No Frauds”]/Xanax be they hardest bars/These niggas hate on BBLs and be walkin’ ’round with the same scars…/Cosplay gangsters, fake-ass accents/Posted in another nigga hood like a bad bitch (where are you from?).” So, essentially, she came for most of the Young Money alumni (except Lil’ Wayne). As per usual, Thee Stallion also talks about how the more people speak negatively about her, the richer she’ll get. This was addressed on Traumazine’s “Her” with, “The more hoes hating, more money I’ma make/And the more niggas talk, more niggas want a taste.” On “Hiss,” it becomes, “Bottom line is I’m still rich” and “Every time I get mentioned, one of y’all bitch-ass niggas get twenty-four hours of attention.”

    This includes Minaj, who is currently getting more than just twenty-four hours of it as she keeps going off on social media while Thee Stallion has let the work do all the talking. Though one imagines Minaj won’t wait too long to deliver a better rebuttal than the one she gave with, “Bad bitch, she like six foot/I call her Big Foot/ The bitch fell off, I said get up on your good foot.” And maybe part of Minaj’s response will also be to the Cardi-delivered line on “Bongos” that goes, “My BD is a Migo/Bitch, your BD is a zero.” Which, yes, could even be interpreted as a dig at Minaj’s baby daddy (turned husband) selection.

    As for Thee Stallion, she concludes “Hiss” by strutting down a stark white catwalk with a pit of snakes slithering on either side. By now, though, she’s prepared to bite back with her own distinct venom. Though there are some very specific moments during the video when she channels the Minaj aesthetic while doing it. Particularly just before opening an Alice in Wonderland-type door into a hall of mirrors where she can say to one version of herself, “Y’all goofy-ass niggas look so dumb after y’all celebrate fake news/Usin’ my name for likes and views/I don’t give a fuck what y’all make trend/Bitch, I still win.” It seems that’s the case for this round of the biftek between the two rap powerhouses (because if anyone knows Minaj, this isn’t going to stop now). So maybe Thee Stallion might be the first to prove that imitation isn’t the sincerest form of flattery…not when the person doing it also happens to be dragging your name through the mud in the process.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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  • Society Once Asked, “Where’s the beef?” Nicki Minaj Plans to Stew It With Her Own Record Label

    Society Once Asked, “Where’s the beef?” Nicki Minaj Plans to Stew It With Her Own Record Label

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    As a woman in the music industry, there’s never been a better time to show the patriarchy how useless it is by starting one’s own label (though let us never forget that Madonna already set that bar a long time ago with Maverick). Ultimate proof that “the suits” have been capitalizing on the myth of their “indispensability” for far too long. Among the ranks of female musicians to have recently started their own label is MARINA, who founded Queenie Records in late 2022. But while MARINA is known for being a more, shall we say, collaborative personality, Nicki Minaj has a reputation for starting beef with just about every interaction (almost Azealia Banks-style)—usually with fellow female rappers. Thus, for her to establish a record label would theoretically mean she’s willing to pack in her combative ways in order to “fully show up” for the musicians she wants to sign. And sure, she claims, “When I get behind an artist, y’all know how I do shit for people that’s not even signed to me. Imagine what I’ma do for the ones that’s signed,” but when anyone rubs her the wrong way, it’s game over.

    One of the latest female rappers to do that was Latto (evidently, taking Cardi B’s erstwhile spot for most threatening new addition to the scene). The beef arose when Minaj called out Latto as an example of a new artist who didn’t deserve such reverence compared to her, this being catalyzed by the Recording Academy’s decision to move Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girl” into consideration for the pop category instead of the rap one while putting together their nomination list (in the end, “Super Freaky Girl” didn’t make the cut at all, while Latto’s “Big Energy” received a nomination in the category of Best Melodic Rap Performance). Minaj’s response to this was, “They stay moving the goalposts when it comes to me. If you can’t tell by now there is a concerted effort to give new artists things they don’t deserve, over artists who have been deserving for many years.”

    This echoed Minaj’s contempt for Cardi’s early success as well. However, rather than start a Twitter war as she did with Latto, the beef came directly to Nicki at a New York Fashion Week party in 2018. When Cardi famously got elbowed in the side of the forehead by one of Minaj’s security guards before then throwing her shoe in Minaj’s direction. The feud’s boiling point was spurred by Cardi’s irritation over “lies Nicki was spreading,” in addition to threatening other musicians in the business that she wouldn’t work with them if they chose to work with Cardi. Taking to Instagram Live after the incident, Cardi expressed, “You lie so much you can’t even keep up with yo fuckin’ lies.”

    Latto felt similarly when Minaj forced her into the drama over the Grammys by tweeting, “This Karen has probably mentioned my name in over 100 interviews…but today, scratch off decides to be silent; rather than speak up for the black woman she called her biggest inspiration.” The accusation came after Latto texted her privately in support of her statement about the unfairness of the category classification for “Super Freaky Girl,” prompting Latto to remind Nicki when she dragged it out in public, “1st of all I texted u cause I didn’t wanna do the internet sht w sum1 I looked up to. I do agree but the way u going about it seems malicious.” Hence, Latto definitely not looking up to Nicki anymore by the time it was all over, complete with getting #40YearOldBully to trend on Twitter. Latto then shared a recorded phone conversation she had with Nicki (because she knew “who tf I’m dealing with”) that featured Nicki accusing Latto of trying to put herself “above” other female rappers a.k.a. Minaj. All in all, it doesn’t sound as though Minaj would create a very “safe space” to nurture up-and-coming female artists in. Especially with the Lil’ Kim prophecy in mind that went: “She wanted to be the only female out there… she wanted to be out there by herself.”

    As the beefs rack up, it appears Minaj might end up being just that in more ways than one. Particularly if she alienates more women trying to or who actually get signed to her label. As Cardi concluded on her 2018 Instagram Live, “You’re out here fucking up your legacy looking like a fucking hater.” And yet, there was a time when creating controversy of this nature was considered “good” for one’s rep. These being in the pre-woke days of pop culture, when everyone could freely admit that they got off on the drama. With the present climate, the urging for women in rap to partake of a more “room for everyone” spirit has been met with continued venom from Miss Chun-Li herself—making it slightly difficult for her to transition into a 2020s climate. But, apropos of “Chun-Li,” it was Minaj herself who insisted, “They need rappers like me/So they can get on their fuckin’ keyboards and make me the bad guy.”

    Yet it seems Minaj is only too adept at doing that to herself (all while refusing to admit to the Taylor adage, “It’s me, hi. I’m the problem it’s me”). This is perhaps because Minaj comes from an old school sensibility regarding what rap entails. More than just the music itself, it is (or was) about a lifestyle centered on beefing. As Minaj once phrased it, “Rap is different now. You gotta pretend you like people and stuff. Everybody’s gotta get on the bandwagon. They get on the love bandwagon, and they get on the hate bandwagon.”

    To play both sides of old and new school takes on what rap should include outside of the music itself, Nicki is known for firing shots behind the scenes while paying “respect” in public—ergo, Latto taping the aforementioned conversation wherein she called Latto “delusional” for saying other female rappers were flourishing. With that in mind, is there any nascent female rap aspirant that would really dare to fuck with Minaj’s label knowing how petty (no reference to her husband intended) she can be? That might be why Minaj was certain to specify, “Don’t think my label is just rap, or Black, or anything. We got some other genres of music.” For, if not, Minaj is liable to get jealous if another woman on her label actually did succeed a little “too well”—conjuring the image of the lyrical threat, “These birds copy every word, every inch/But gang-gang got the hammer and the wrench.” Minaj has also reiterated her contempt for any woman who tries to compete for her throne on her latest single, “Red Ruby Da Sleeze” (during which she also alludes to the Latto beef, in addition to “potentially” shading Megan Thee Stallion with the line, “I don’t fuck with horses”).

    Continuing her beloved tradition of sampling, Minaj used Lumidee’s “Never Leave You (Uh Oooh, Uh Oooh)” (itself a sample from Steven “Lenky” Marsden’s Diwali Riddim compilation) on the follow-up single to the Rick James-grafted “Super Freaky Girl.” Minaj, whether aware of it or not, appears to tongue-in-cheekly include Lumidee’s original verses at the end: “If you want me to stay/I’ll never leave/If you want me to stay/Love endlessly.” In other words, she wants everyone else to love her endlessly…not the other way around. Which certainly makes for plenty of beef-stewing on a new label. Or, if nothing else, the building of a new kind of Barbz army.

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    Genna Rivieccio

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