Trini-American rapper Nicki Minaj has divulged her disinterest in living up to dating rumors and her interest in discrediting her critics with a top-charting debut in the new issue of Out magazine.
Minaj definitely has a lot to say about the politics of being a woman in the 21st-century music biz. “Everybody knows I can go out and pick a dude and date him,” she says. “But I want to do what people think I can’t do, which is have the number 1 album in the country and be the first female rapper to sell records like dudes in this day and age.”
After taking some heat for identifying with one of the best-selling, and most disproportioned, toys in history–she ends phone calls with a screeched “It’s Barbie, b*tch!” — she was accused of being plastic. “It’s interesting that people have more negative things to say about me saying ‘I’m Barbie’ than me saying ‘I’m a bad b*tch,’ ” she says, getting a bit heated. “So you can call yourself a female dog because that’s cool in our community. But if you call yourself a Barbie, that’s fake.” The criticism didn’t just irk her; it inspired her. “Once I figure something is irritating people, I’m going to do it more,” she says, smiling, “because I like to get on your nerves until you realize how fing stupid you are.”
