Nicki Minaj is a very good rapper, and over the past few years she's used mixtapes and guest appearances to let everybody know it. Both formats suit her, the same way sketch comedy suits some actors better than leading roles. She's funny, and surprising, and sometimes she leaps from voice to voice with showy speed — a Barbie-inspired chirp gets followed by a Caribbean growl, following which she's just a tough girl from Queens, following which she's English, or crazy, or an evil twin she calls "Roman Zolanski."
That range leaves her sounding unhinged and dominating at the same time, which is usually a fun combination. More important, it turns one of the obstacles to her work — being a woman in a job almost exclusively done by men — into an opportunity. The average male emcee doesn't have access to the same number of poses Minaj does: She can roar and spit the way her peers do, but they can't necessarily bat their eyes and drop into coy, teasing voices like she can. Sometimes, next to Minaj, they seem a little penned in by their own masculinity, while she can perform any role she likes — right down to the Day-Glo wigs, bizarro fashion, and Betty Boop facial expressions that have endeared her to the pop world.
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weber_dubois22
