2010's - Today: The Age of BLM, #MeToo, Mainstream Identity Politics, and Social Media Virality

The final song in the chronology of Black women exhibiting musical resistance through the expression of their sexuality is Nicki Minaj's 2014 single "Anaconda." It truly took me a while to decide which song I wanted to go with for the 2010s. I was between "Anaconda," a few Beyoncé songs, and "Pynk" by Janelle Monae. I ultimately decided on "Anaconda" because of Minaj's use of a Sir Mix A Lot sample and wanted to analyze why that was so important. I hope you enjoy!

Transcript:

One of Nicki Minaj’s biggest and most controversial hits, her 2014 single “Anaconda” epitomizes all of the previous forms of musical resistance and Black women sexual practices that I have outlined over this project.

“Anaconda”’s significance is one truly rooted in foundational Black feminist theory. In her 1978 essay “Uses of the Erotic,” Audre Lorde perfectly explains just why it is so empowering and subversive when women engage with their sexuality.

Lorde says and I quote “The erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling. In order to perpetuate itself, every oppression must corrupt or distort those various sources of power within the culture of the oppressed that can provide energy for change. For women, this has meant a suppression of the erotic as a considered source of power and information within our lives.” End quote

On “Anaconda,” Minaj knows of the innate power of the erotic and the suppressive nature of the male gaze and rather than allowing the suppressive male gaze oppress her, Minaj flips it against itself.

Minaj samples Sir Mix A Lot’s 1992 song “Baby’s Got Back.” The repeated line “My anaconda don’t want none unless you got buns hun” is the perfect example of the objectifying nature of the male gaze.

Sir Mix A Lot centers his desires in this line and deems women as worthy of his attention based on their figure. Minaj takes this and uses it against Sir Mix A Lot and the male gaze. Minaj knows that she has the type of physique that men like Sir Mix a Lot are enticed by and she uses this in her favor. Minaj juxtaposes Mix A Lot’s lyrics against lyrics in which she is objectifying men.

Let's listen to some of the second verse:

Now that bang, bang, bang

I let him hit it 'cause he slang cocaine

He toss my salad like his name Romaine

And when we done, I make him buy me Balmain

Minaj talks about only letting men sleep with her who are physically endowed, can please her sexually, and have the money to buy her expensive goods such as Balmain. This verse is immediately followed again by Sir Mix A Lot “my anaconda don't want none unless you got buns hun” but Sir Mix A Lot and his desires are not at the center of this. Minaj and her “buns” are.

“Anaconda” truly is an example of contemporary hip-hop feminism

Minaj builds on the traditions of hip-hop feminism that I outlined in my earlier analysis of Missy Elliot’s “Work It”

Like Elliot, Minaj flips and reverses the male gaze through an embracing of her sexuality, of her inner erotic. As can be seen in the way she manipulates the Sir Mix A Lot sample to her advantage.

Further, also like Elliot, Minaj both asserts her independence through self-identification as seen in the lines “He loves this fat ass” and the song’s final lines “I’ve got a big fat ass”

In “Remnants of Venus: Signifying Black Beauty and Sexuality” Janell Hobson outlines a history of the fetishization and damnation of Black women’s posteriors and the current trends of appropriation and reclamation of Black women’s bottoms in mainstream pop culture.

Hobson speaks of how white and non Black women of color are revered for having curvaceous bodies but Black women are body shamed. From the 19th century case of the Hottentot Venus to the backlash and body shaming Minaj received after releasing “Anaconda.”

However, rather than letting this history of misogynoir get to her, Minaj looks inward to her erotic and in “Anaconda” creates what Hobson calls an “oppositional space for Black women’s sexual agency.

The song’s outro is an example of this. Let’s listen

Yeah, he love this fat ass aha!

Yeah! This one is for my

Bitches with a fat ass in the fucking club

I said, where my fat ass big bitches in the club?

“Where my fat ass big bitches in the club?” is an example of the same coalition and sisterhood building that is a staple of hip-hop feminism, much like Elliot does in "Work It."

Minaj even extends this Black feminist work to the music video for “Anaconda” in which she dances provocatively with other curvaceous women, primarily Black women. The video ends with Minaj twerking on the lap of rap artist Drake and then walking away from him leaving him obviously aroused and distressed that he cannot have Minaj.

Much like the Black women musicians before her, from Missy Elliot to Ma Rainey, Minaj uses her erotic, her sexuality, to create space for Black women to freely express themsevles and feel as empowered as she does, making “Anaconda” the perfect last song in this chronology of Black women’s exhibitions of musical resistance.

Works Cited:

Hobson, Janell. “Remnants of Venus: Signifying Black Beauty and Sexuality.” Women's Studies Quarterly, vol. 46, no. 1/2, 2018, pp. 105–120. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26421165.

Lorde, Audre. 2007. "Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power" In Sister Outsider:

Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde, 53-59. Berkeley, CA: Crossing Press.

Lorde, Audre, and Adrienne Rich. 1981. "An Interview with Audre Lorde," Si

Nicki Minaj. Nicki Minaj - Anaconda. 2014. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDZX4ooRsWs.

Nicki Minaj – Anaconda Lyrics | Genius Lyrics. https://genius.com/Nicki-minaj-anaconda-lyrics.