*With her played-out white girl hair and suspect neck/collarbone situation, rapper Nicki Minaj has ranked on TIME’s annual “100 Most Influential People” list. In an articled penned by her YMCMB label boss, Lil Wayne, the rapper praised the “Anaconda” lyricist for apparently changing the rap game.
Meanwhile, the jury is still deliberating on what she has done exactly that’s so profound, and will musically stand the test of time. 20 years from now, will anyone be pulling out a Minaj CD and bumping it like it’s an ageless classic? Doubtful.
Never forget that Minaj, who has been struggling with self-hate and body issues since she hit the scene – once signed off on black women being called monkeys on her “Did It On ‘Em” track. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why TIME named her on its list. She’s willing to put down her own while promoting the European standard of beauty, and white supremacist ideology.
Baby, bye.
“Her work ethic speaks volumes and has yielded these results,” Weezy writes. “The scary thing is she’s still going. Ha! Nicki Minaj will go down as one of the best to do it in the history of music.”
READ RELATED STORY: Nicki Minaj’s Brother Indicted; Quinta B. Signs New BuzzFeed Deal
Minaj can be seen in “Barbershop: The Next Cut,” which made an impression at the box office last opening weekend. She will also launch her first television series on ABC Family titled “Nicki” in the near future.
The “Pinkprint” artist also shares TIME’s list with Lin Manuel-Miranda, Leonardo DiCaprio, Priyanka Chopra, Ryan Coogler, Kendrick Lamar, and many more.
Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza has praised Lamar for making the list. She even penned her love for him and his Grammy-award winning album, “To Pimp A Butterfly,” recalling the varied emotions she experienced the first time she listened to the record.
“The first time I heard To Pimp a Butterfly was on a crowded plane heading to Jackson, Miss.,” she said. “With headphones on, there I was, bobbing my head and having audible conversations with myself because that album made me feel—moved and troubled, challenged, uplifted, angry, skeptical and raw. Far from creating “conscious rap,” Kendrick Lamar has evolved a new genre of movement music that asserts no answers but raises hard questions and brings us together to take them on.”
In closing, Garza says Lamar has given a voice to the voiceless by challenging society through his music.
“Kendrick should be applauded for inviting us to face things that are uncomfortable, for celebrating our will to survive and for being audacious enough to grapple with the questions that we all need to answer if we ever hope to get free,” she said.
Check out the rest of Garza’s essay here.
