Nicki Minaj Claims Double Standard on ‘Anaconda’ Cover

A few months ago, when Nicki Minaj decided to stop dressing like melted Neapolitan ice cream, people asked if I would finally stop giving her such a hard time.

And this is one of the reasons why:

Last week, Nicki released the album cover for her new single, “Anaconda.”

In 2014, it’s downright sad that female rappers STILL have to resort to this stuff for attention. As you’d expect, critics came out of the woodwork, slamming Nicki for such a lazy, hackneyed attempt for publicity.

But, to Nicki’s credit, she fired back. From necolebitchie.com:

Last night, Nicki decided to snap back at her critics by posting up a number of photos of supermodels who have posed in thongs and booty-baring bikinis to her account while labeling them “Acceptable.” She then reposted her own image and marked it “Unacceptable.”

Visit the link to check the swimsuit pics Nicki used in her argument. I ain’t posting them here – I don’t need Google throwing my site into the NSFW realm of these here Internetz.

Nicki’s point is that the outcry over her album cover is a racial double standard. After all, we live in a world that embraces underdressed white supermodels as classy while underdressed black women are nothing but filthy strippers. And she’s exactly right, those double standards are deep-rooted. Black women have long been stigmatized as hypersexual and classless.

So what does Nicki do? Play RIGHT into the stigma that she rallies against.

Look, I’m not here to debate the merits of a women’s right to be naked on a rap album or a magazine or whatever. That’s a whole ‘nother kettle of Old Bay fried fish. But Nicki’s comparison between her album controversy and a swimsuit magazine is just absurd.

If Nicki caught heat for wearing a swimsuit in Sports Illustrated, she’d have a legit gripe. But that’s not what happened.

Those flat-bootied white women she rallied against were part of Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue. They wore swimsuits in a swimsuit magazine.

Nicki Minaj wore butt floss on a rap record cover.

A swimsuit magazine =/= rap record. It’s that simple.

The most insulting part of Nicki’s faux crusade is that she screams about inequality and stereotyping in one breath while setting black women back 20 years in another. What does it say to the young women she claims to fight for when the most prominent female rapper in the game right now (for better or worse) has to resort to twerk poses to sell rap records?

Nicki may have dressed like Rainbow Fright in her pop days but at least she was somewhat clothed. She rarely resorted to this level of desperation just to move units – and that’s saying something.

The biggest problem with “Anaconda” isn’t racial double standards, it’s that it’s telling rap fans that female MCs have to be on the Twerk Team to get attention in 2014.

It’s funny, this lady never had to resort to that.

Nor her.

Nor her.

Nor her.

If Nicki wants to air her vagina on her album cover, that’s her choice. But she needs to stop playing the victim, especially when she’s the one doing the most damage to hip-hop culture.