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December 5, 2012 9:50 PM

Nicki Minaj? Nope, Chuck Testa.
posted by boo_radley (39 comments total)

SEY
posted by cortex at 10:00 PM on December 5, 2012

Having watched all four videos:
Testa > Minaj.

If I hadn't heard of a Nicki Minaj before I'd think that was a pisstake. May or may not need a NSFW warning. Ugh.

The Testa set of links are the same link, BTW.
posted by Mezentian at 10:02 PM on December 5, 2012

Well, I am sure they were the same.
posted by Mezentian at 10:03 PM on December 5, 2012

Mezentian: "The Testa set of links are the same link, BTW."

They're not, though. That's just what the post is doing to you. Relax and enjoy it.
posted by boo_radley at 10:03 PM on December 5, 2012

I turned off the first Minaj video halfway through, but somehow was able to view the entirety of the reversal. At first I thought the guy in the third and fourth videos was Fatlip or ?uestlove or Young MC or maybe Busta. Nope. Chuck Testa.
posted by carsonb at 10:08 PM on December 5, 2012

watching Michael Jackson in reverse and thinking, seriously, how did it never occur to Michael Jackson to watch himself in reverse and choreograph that shit

this is the moonwalk guy, it's his fucking wheelhouse by defintion
posted by cortex at 10:09 PM on December 5, 2012

Nicki Minaj sucks the pig balls I've been bumping into all day today.
posted by phaedon at 10:12 PM on December 5, 2012

cortex: "watching Michael Jackson in reverse and thinking"

god I really buried the lede on this one. Just, amateur posting hour.

Michael Jackson & Janet Jackson - Scream Reverse
posted by boo_radley at 10:13 PM on December 5, 2012

IF YOU PUT A RING ON IT THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE LIKED IT
posted by cortex at 10:14 PM on December 5, 2012 [2 favorites]

Seriously, Single Ladies in reverse would be a more convincing "pop music videos of the future!" reel than anything likely to show up as actual pop futurism in a contemporary scifi flick.
posted by cortex at 10:19 PM on December 5, 2012 [6 favorites]

Jeez, where are the bjork videos?
posted by boo_radley at 10:23 PM on December 5, 2012

I'm pretty sure Nicki Minaj is deliberately fucking with her 'audience'. So everything she does is indeed a piss take. I bet she or her songwriter(s) hate each and everyone of her 'fans' (if any exist).
posted by Yowser at 10:29 PM on December 5, 2012

Oh, I dunno. She was pretty charming on Graham Norton. I didn't detect too much fan hate during that particular encounter.
posted by hippybear at 10:34 PM on December 5, 2012

My understanding is that Nicki Minaj's fans are called "Barbs", after the Barbie-ideal that they all aspire to.
posted by Mezentian at 10:35 PM on December 5, 2012

Is that Nicki Minaj? No it's Nekci Menij.
I don't know what that is. I really don't.
posted by Mezentian at 10:41 PM on December 5, 2012 [4 favorites]

That Chuck Testa song was poop all around, the beat was nearly identical to Nicki Minaj's poopy beat. Repetitive samples and all.

What a bunch of poop. Good job?

Lord, i'm either getting old or the world really is close to ending. It's been fun, though.
posted by phylum sinter at 11:51 PM on December 5, 2012

Well, yeah. "Ugh" and hand-wringing about "NSFW" is about par for the course when actual* hip-hop comes up around here. Minaj takes a lot of crap in hip-hop circles, but if you listen you can't deny her stuff is catchy and she has talent. This track here is actually the worst I've ever heard from her, but she has plenty of good stuff.



*as opposed to"nerd-core" and "hilarious" white people parodies
posted by drjimmy11 at 12:57 AM on December 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Is that Nicki Minaj? No it's Nekci Menij.

Holy fucking

Wait, what was I

Man, I like to think I'm a citizen of the internet, inured to all manner of post-whatever mindfuckery, but some blessed times it lays a whole fresh dose of WHAT? on me. Thanks, I guess!
posted by hap_hazard at 1:54 AM on December 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

seriously, how did it never occur to Michael Jackson to watch himself in reverse and choreograph that shit

Oh, the irony. Of course it did occur to him. He loved the idea. All of the routines that you're familiar with are, in fact, reversals. You are only now discovering what forward Michael Jackson looks like. Surprising, isn't it!
posted by Wolfdog at 2:54 AM on December 6, 2012 [5 favorites]

Of course, I had to go looking for a reverse Gangnam Style,

That very clearly says "Hey, Endless Whiskey!", which explains a few things.
posted by Wolfdog at 2:57 AM on December 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

When did they start taking all the music out of music and replacing it with hand claps and little sounds? Is there a name for that style?
posted by orme at 4:40 AM on December 6, 2012

Every morning, the station I watch my local news on runs a bunch of ads for a Top 40 radio station. This is my only exposure to Nicki Minaj outside of absorbing enough pop culture to know that she exists in the first place.

Anyways, the ad is full of bright lights and pop people talking about how they love being on the radio. The amount of disdain Minaj shows in her little clip is palpable, so strong that her contempt reaches through the television and curdles the cream cheese on my bagel (not a euphemism yet). The pop people (I can recognize Katy Pery, Xtina, and the other guy who is not black or country from The Voice, beyond that things get hazy) all at least plug away at the ad. But man, Minaj doesn't want to be there, wherever there is, to read her half a line and mug at the camera.

Of course, the entire ad is undercut by the almost exact same ad that they run for I Heart Radio, and online streaming service. It's the same clips of the same pop people, although someone wisely removed any mention to the radio.

The station sometimes plays one after the other, so one minute you have Katy Perry telling you that the only way you can get to her is through a radio station, the next her saying the same thing about streaming online. At first, I though this is because the local station was inept and just farted out ads to fill time. Then I thought that since the ads are pretty much identical, it would be a very easy mistake to make ("insert flashing pop ad here").

Now, though, I think it's actually a commentary on the disposable nature of pop music snuck in by an intern in the ad department. Plastic artists can be stretched to fill whatever void you want them to. Radio people? Sure. Internet? Got that. We are pop and we have sold our souls in order to be mailable to your needs. We sing the songs demographic research writes for us and we do so wherever you want us to.

So now when I see Nicki Minaj's pure contempt for the ad and her audience, I also see desperation hidden in her eyes, the last shreds of her artistic soul crying out to be freed from the plastic pop prison she signed herself away to.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:13 AM on December 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

Removing the music from rap is just a return to it's roots
posted by Ad hominem at 5:17 AM on December 6, 2012

So now when I see Nicki Minaj's pure contempt for the ad and her audience, I also see desperation hidden in her eyes

That's her thing, she's a "bad bitch",one of her lines in Beez in the Trap is "I'm shitting on your whole life"
posted by Ad hominem at 5:41 AM on December 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

orme: "When did they start taking all the music out of music and replacing it with hand claps and little sounds? Is there a name for that style?"

I don't know if there's a hip-hop term for it, but if you took the vocals out of the Minaj track linked here, it would be called minimal techno.
posted by Bugbread at 5:43 AM on December 6, 2012

. "Ugh" and hand-wringing about "NSFW" is about par for the course when actual* hip-hop comes up around here.

I pretty much hate all hip-hop, bit different tastes and all. Didn't mind Chuck Testa. Probably will never listen again.
And it wasn't hand-wringing about NSFW. I reckon any fucking time you have copious swearing you've gotta fucking NSFW that shit for people who listen in the office without headphones.

Doesn't bother me, my office gathered around to watch Paris when her video hit the net, but I had no idea pop music had gotten quite that potty-mouthed.
posted by Mezentian at 5:55 AM on December 6, 2012

Is there a name for that style?

Uroldstep.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:59 AM on December 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Minaj takes a lot of crap in hip-hop circles, but if you listen you can't deny her stuff is catchy and she has talent. This track here is actually the worst I've ever heard from her, but she has plenty of good stuff.

My knee-jerk reaction is to just post lyrics from her most popular song, but I'm 90% sure it would be deleted as being a vicious personal attack. Which... doesn't speak well of the larger point.
posted by Mayor West at 6:38 AM on December 6, 2012

Well Minaj is a kinda interesting. FWIW, Stupid Hoe is a diss track by her alter ego/parasitic twin Roman Zolanski. What is interesting is that she has developed these alter egos to comparmentalize various tracks. The harder tracks are Roman Zolanski, the softer tracks are by another alter ego Harajuku Barbi.She certainly isn't the first artist, or even rapper to do this though but I think it's neat she appears as multiple alter egos at once instead of having one "bad side" ala Slim Shady.
posted by Ad hominem at 6:54 AM on December 6, 2012

if you took the vocals out of the Minaj track linked here, it would be called minimal techno.

it's more like "club music" i.e. "baltimore club music." the producer, dj diamond kuts, is from philly.
posted by ennui.bz at 6:54 AM on December 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Minaj is awesome and Testa is also pretty great.

I will say this: The last thing I expected a dude who looks like Testa to have is flow. But he totally does! It may just be that he's propped up by the rappers around him but seriously, wow. I would listen to more of his stuff.

Also, that girl is, what, twelve? If she wrote that verse she's got an incredible future ahead of her. She probably does anyway.
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 7:07 AM on December 6, 2012

I think the music is more caribean club music, Minaji is from Trinidad. The blippy and bloody stuff and sparse beat sounds like Major Lazer to me, a kind of interpreted caribean. Anyway, I'm no Minaj expert.
posted by Ad hominem at 7:12 AM on December 6, 2012

Of course, the entire ad is undercut by the almost exact same ad that they run for I Heart Radio, and online streaming service. It's the same clips of the same pop people, although someone wisely removed any mention to the radio.

The station sometimes plays one after the other, so one minute you have Katy Perry telling you that the only way you can get to her is through a radio station, the next her saying the same thing about streaming online.

I <3 Radio is actually a collection of terrestrial radio stations that stream over the internet, so I wouldn't be surprised if there was some kind of synergy/overlap between its ads and the ads of its affiliated stations.
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:21 AM on December 6, 2012

Having angered the Mods today already, I'm not gonna link it, but I'm gonna twist it.
Lyrics.
I get it crackin' like a bad back
Bitch talkin' she the queen when she lookin' like a lab rat,
I'm Angelina, You Jennifer,
Come on, bitch. You see where Brad at
Ace my wrists-is, then I piss on bitches,
You can suck my diznik, if you take this jizz-is,
You don't like them disses, give my ass some kisses

There is an extended tongue in the video there.
posted by Mezentian at 7:26 AM on December 6, 2012

Why would linking the lyrics to the song already linked in the post anger the mods? Like I said, it's a track in which she plays her character Roman Zolanski. Look at the next verse where she says:

Yes, my name is Roman, last name is Zolanski
But no relation to Roman Polanski

This is supposed to be a manifestation of her darker nature. Are we supposed to object to the fact that she has a darker nature? Or that an artist would express an aspect of herself some people might not approve of?
posted by Ad hominem at 7:36 AM on December 6, 2012

orme: "When did they start taking all the music out of music and replacing it with hand claps and little sounds? Is there a name for that style?"

Acapella?
posted by boo_radley at 9:13 AM on December 6, 2012

If you want to get a little context about Nekci Menij, then you might want to start with Dolan. (Possibly NSFW.) As ever, it starts more or less, with 4chan.
posted by speedo at 6:18 PM on December 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

I <3 Radio is actually a collection of terrestrial radio stations that stream over the internet, so I wouldn't be surprised if there was some kind of synergy/overlap between its ads and the ads of its affiliated stations.

iHeartRadio is actually Clear Channel. So synergy isn't actually the right word. More like corporate planning.
posted by hippybear at 6:22 PM on December 6, 2012

Is there a name for that style?

Uroldstep.

haha! I think you're right, because the first thing I thought of was rap music from 1985.
posted by orme at 3:39 AM on December 7, 2012