The Problem's problem

I love the idea of Keys, because it's basically the idea of Roxanne Shanté. Keys, an emotional 21-year-old rapper from Baltimore, is rapidly etching out a name for herself via YouTube, a mixtape and a burgeoning alliance with Lil' Kim. All are related to insulting practically the only relevant female rapping today, Nicki Minaj. Like Shanté did 26 years ago in response to U.T.F.O.'s "Roxanne, Roxanne," Keys has taken it upon herself to be offended by nonsense. She claims that she attacks Minaj's perceived inability for the sake of the medium she so loves ("Now please don’t get offended if I say I gotta out you/ I do this for hip-hop, this is not about you / I’m just tryin’ to take the game back to what it used to be / Real MCs with real flows, none of this tomfoolery"). It's more than Minaj that has her riled up -- Keys' solution to hip-hop's problem amounts to a verbal genocide on the MCs that underwhelm her (it's somewhat difficult to grasp exactly who she's targeting -- unlike her now infamous Minaj YouTube dis, she doesn't even so much as say Minaj's name on The Infiltration, although some other people do in interludes). However, Keys' means is an end itself: in following Shanté's lead, she seems keenly aware of the roots of shit-stirring and attention-grabbing via hip-hop. From a listener's perspective, this constructed strife has given female rap a juiciness it hasn't had in years. As a bit of light diversion (as long as it stays light, i.e. in the linguistic realm), it's good for us, it's good for Minaj, and it's especially good for Keys.

But maybe it's a little too good, given that Keys' primary beef regards Minaj's proud quirks ("Gimmicks and commercialism are at an all-time high!" wails Keys during a fake newscast field report intro of The Infiltration). I get that, and I think it's valid. I understand why people respond to Minaj's colorfulness, but the woman annoys the shit out of me. If I never again have to watch Nicki Minaj hammily scowl between verses, or hear her flip into a British accent, or endure her trying to convince me she's a Barbie or Monica Lewinsky again, it'll be too soon. Once you get over its randomness, Nicki Minaj's bag of tricks seems shallow.

However, I don't really understand how Keys' thinks she can get away with attacking others for having gimmicks when the gimmick of attacking Minaj has done so nicely for her. Isn't Keys just as smug ("This is Keys, but more importantly, this is hip-hop") and repetitive ("I’m ‘bout that real hip-hop like 2Pac and Biggie rap")? Isn't Keys' Spartan just Minaj's Barbie with her hair chopped off and doll clothes that are more butch? Certainly, anyone who admits on record, "I have a really fucked up view on life," is entering cartoon-character territory with or without the matching ensemble (wouldn't it be so much more fucked up if she didn't know how fucked up her view on life was?). It's as though Keys is so fixated on response that she's cast herself in the role of shadow to Minaj's light ("Fuck feelings!" she says, like a stock antagonist). Keys proclaims, "Y'all tryin' to fit in, I'm tryin' to stick out," but that sentiment could have come from her adversary's mouth just as easily.

Keys' passion is a force to behold -- certainly, it's an antidote to Minaj's laid-back and nasal meep-meeping. Keys' somewhat obsessive focus is also a welcome alternative -- Minaj's lyrics are a string of non sequiturs that seem to have little awareness of the last thing she said, much less the track at large. There's only one Lil Wayne and something like, “Flow so sick I need a healer / Fuck is my MAC concealer?" isn't going to win any points for freely associative brilliance, anyway. (Even worse: "So, I got a bad-bitch mentality/ ‘Cause I just came from another galaxy / I be with the President up in the White House / If we in the Oval Office, it’s lights out.") (Worse still: "Louie, Dewy, Louie / Cotton candy, chewy chewy.") It's frustrating to think back to a time when Lyte, Yo-Yo, and Latifah were all over the radio (sometimes in a single track!) or even when Eve, Kim, Lauryn and Missy merely had to spit to get a hit, and then survey our current time and see...Nicki Minaj.

But the thing is that Minaj is not a rapper. Real rappers will tell you that, but then so will she. She's an "entertainer," a marketing scheme, a woman of many hats that pipe directly to her bank account. I'm not sure yet how good she is at being a pop star (she's made a big splash with little output, sure, and she's a good mascot, gamely cheering for the theme of whatever track she's guesting on, but her solo singles, "Massive Attack" and "Your Love" are tough listens and really kind of embarrassing, despite the latter's early success). It'll take a while before we can determine if Minaj lives up to her hype, but the point is that she's a lot less infuriating when you accept her for what she is. Attacking Nicki Minaj for not having substance is like attacking a green wig for being green. And if you're examining her career closely enough to write a cycle of songs about her, you should soon get to this point of realization -- she isn't worth a real rapper's spit.

Keys needs to get over this Minaj shit so that her passion doesn't end up squandered by her subject matter. Her voice is like a balled fist ready to hurl fire wherever she sees fit and at least there are signs that she's aiming for more worthy targets ("Sponsor," for example is an anthem mocking women's reliance on men). For now, maybe her most substantial target is herself. "Now this is not my best, I have not yet reached my prime / I am only 21, imagine when I’m 29," she raps on "Ain't Over." Her ability to simultaneously brag about and humble herself is nothing short of masterful. I'm just as hopeful for Keys' future as she is.

Comments

[lily belle]

Rich, you need to get over this Minaj shit. Please stop taking her so seriously...Nicki is clearly silly and not a threat to female rap SO RELAX.

[Suzie]

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! My God, I thought I was alone in my disdain for Minaj- so many people on the bandwagon. She's just like Family guy- so popular but not at all clever. Just cheap tricks...but that's enough for most

[Thouarthat]

Nicki's songs are catchy and she's Young Munaaaaayyyy so she'll continue to do fine whether Keys tries to take her to task or not. Don't get me wrong I want to see more femcees like Keys, who seemed to have disappeared after the mid-90s, maybe except for Eve and Jean Grae.
Now Jean Grae... there is the most talented femcee I've ever listened to and she blows Nicki, Keys, Kim, and anyone else out of the water, but has unfortunately earned little commercial success.

[AfghanAnt]

Rich, great article but I don't know if I would say she isn't a rapper. Wasn't Will Smith and his catching summer hits a rapper? Furthermore, Nicki Minaj's first mixtape Sucka Free really demonstrated real lyrical talent. Am I mad she wants to capitalize on the same success that Lady Gaga, Ke$sha (oh brother), and other white pop starlets have done? No but I also don't think Keys has much to say - once the anger is gone what will "the Problem" be next?

[AfghanAnt]

Also Rich how is this different Jay-Z and Nas? Nas was calling Jay-Z's more commercial songs a disrespect to hip-hop even to the point where he proclaimed hip-hop was dead. While Nas is clearly the more talented and real of the two, Jay-Z had sales. Some times it is about a dollar, Rich. Not a movement.

[Chaely]

In nobody in particular's defense I'd say that Nicki is more of a rapper than ohhhh let's say Ke$sha is a singer. Let's be honest, being a music sensation doesn't always involve talent.

[Golden J]

In the vein of "can't we all just get along?" I'm wondering why this girl, who seems pretty talented, has to focus all her output on tearing down the ONE successful female rapper at the moment? I mean, really? Was ONE too much?

I'll just add that Nicki Minaj may not be so great but she adds a hell of a lot more to our world than Drake does. (And yeah, she's way more of a rapper than Kesha is a singer.)

[Dan in NYC]

Maybe this is a sign that I'm getting old, or that media is now so "niche" that I'm not seeing anything I'm not looking for anymore (not surprising given the increasingly black or white, conservative or liberal way that media seems to be going lately), but I've never heard of either of these people.

Loved your take, Rich, and felt like I learned something even though it simultaneously made me feel a little out of touch.

[Bex]

Love that B-more accent. Looooooooove it!

[Lola]

*team keys

[Brando]

Great read!

[c cleveland]

In defense of nicki.... Is nicki talking about anything of importance? No, but who is? Growing up a female in hip hop had to be butch and angry or sexy and slutty. Nicki is allowing black girls to be girly, silly, and random. And for that I stan. And while I'm not sold on the barbie movement her mixtapes show she has the potential to move beyond it. That's what I'm really excited to see.

[foxy]

Girl, your weirdo Minaj hateration is still throwing me. I get that a LOT of people find her annoying as hell, but I mean... Eve? Lil' Kim? Yo-Yo? As much as I enjoy them, none are what I'd call "great female MCs" let alone "great MCs". And definitely wouldn't call Keys any better than your average street girl spitting freestyles on the corner. Keys don't make me laugh and she don't make me cry; all she does is talk smack (about others and herself), and not even wittily.

MInaj is silly, sure. But so were/are Beastie Boys, Eminem, Missy, Lil' Wayne, Luda and a zillion others. Hating the persona and the package is one thing - I can't stand 99.7% of Eminem but would never say he's talentless as you keep doing with Minaj.

And if you can't give props to Minaj for rapping repeatedly about boning Obama (and...Cassie...), then I'm not sure whose blog I've been reading for five years.

[munchies]

Keys sucks.

To single out a few lyrics and claim that all of her lyrics are a string of non sequiturs is lazy. You're just picking on her because she's female.

I don't care what y'all say, to get flyer than a kite and higher than Rapunzel is genius.

[Affiliate Marketing]

Cute girl!

[How To Conceive A Boy]

Where can we hear some of her work?