Nicki Minaj: Rapping Pop Princess or Sellout?

Make no mistake. Nicki Minaj is a hip-hop star, but she is a pop princess all the same ... and don't you forget it. Lil Wayne went Lucy Lui à la Kill Bill on the bosses behind Summer Jam after a host questioned her place in the rap industry and insulted her smash hit single "Starships." Once again, Nicki Minaj is being blasted by the hip-hop community for making pop music.

It all started when Hot 97 DJ and Hip-Hop Squares host Peter Rosenberg threw down “Starships,” on the current single from Minaj’s Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, while introducing rapper Kendrick Lamar. “We’re all about that real hip-hop,” he told the crowd. “I know there are some chicks in here waiting to sing along with ‘Starships’ later. I’m not talking to y’all right now. F— that bulls—.”


Lil Wayne, who heads up Minaj’s Young Money label, jumped on Twitter to announce “Young Money ain’t doing summer jam.” Minaj immediately backed him up: “The President has spoken,” she said on Twitter. “I go above and beyond for my fans. But won’t ever go against Wayne’s word. What he says, goes.”

Source: EW

So that raised the question, is Nicki Minaj a sellout? 

 What I don't understand is where this hatred was when Lil Wayne was rapping songs like "Lollipop" which is essentially his "Superbass." Nicki Minaj is a sellout for working with Britney Spears and Madonna, but no one is going to question Kanye being on a Katy Perry track? Why is Nicki being crucified by the hip-hop community at every turn for being smart? Let's be honest; Her urban singles aren't getting spins on radio like her pop singles. Her urban tracks aren't the ones that are always in the top 10 on iTunes. Nicki isn't going to sell out the Staples Center in LA doing just her mixtape circuit music. So is she just to continue making the music that doesn't ship as many units, knowing she has the ability to compete with the likes Rihanna and Lady Gaga in terms of popularity? 

I don't care what any artist says! No matter how much they claim that isn't not about the money or the fame, not one artist in the industry wants to waste their time making music that they can't live off of. No one wants to go on tour and have to cancel it because the room is empty. The whole problem with the host of Summer Jam slamming Nicki Minaj was the fact that he was claiming that people show up to rap events for "street music." I highly doubt that as the headliner of the show, 75% of the audience didn't show up for Minaj's name alone. That's why "street rap" is called "street rap." It's in the streets. It's not as respected because people don't pay for that shit.

So you can call Nicki Minaj a sellout if you want to, but if we're going to do that then we need to line up Kanye West, Jay-Z, Outkast, Lil Wayne and a slew of other rappers who have changed up their sound in exchange for a chart topper. 

To me, a sellout would be Regina Spektor getting from behind her piano, dressing up like Britney Spears and doing dance music for the sake of topping iTunes. Even still, if that's what Regina truly wanted to do and she was was good at it, who cares? For every fan she looses, she'll surely gain a new one or two. If Nicki stopped doing hip-hop altogether, I'd understand the issue, but she hasn't. The day Nicki dropped her first studio album, she made it clear that she wanted to do pop music and the album was riddled with it.

So no. I don't think Nicki Minaj is a sellout. Yes, her colorful wig collection and animated deliveries are a far cry from her original sound and look, but she never had the platform to express herself the way she can now. 0 What are your thoughts? Let's chop this up in the comment section! 

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