Sometimes, rap lyrics are clear. Other times they’re just oblique disses drawing from zeitgeist. Many times they’re persona pieces, a metafictional voice that is easily conflated with the actual identity of the MC who spits them. But I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this: NICKI MINAJ IS NOT ENDORSING MITT ROMNEY.
Speculation around the great watercooler that is the internets are drawing this leap of conclusion from a line Minaj’s verse on Lil Wayne’s latest mixtape, Dedication 4, where she says,”I’m a Republican voting for Mitt Romney/You lazy bitches is f*cking up the economy.” The line falls in the category of oblique diss in my view (cringeworthy), not a patent endorsement of Romney. I mean, how could she? A woman who breaks down the patriarchical order in less than 60 seconds certainly couldn’t consider a candidate who’s party platform wants to govern her physical body, where the candidate’s running mate subscribes to the idea that rape is sex, and by warped logic, a form conception, (and most importantly for Minaj the MC), a party that believes that she doesn’t deserve pay equal to her male counterparts. Nah.
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