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Next month, rapper Nicki Minaj will grace the cover of Complex Magazine in promotion of her upcoming album, The Pinkprint. In the exclusive interview, Minaj talked about a lot of things—from her multiple personalities to having babies to being compared to Jay-Z with the title of The Pinkprint. As the author Lauren Nostro puts it, “No one is going to tell you what Nicki Minaj is doing except Nicki Minaj.”

While Minaj discussed how The Pinkprint is going to be her most personal album yet and how being on the road has had a damaging impact on her relationship with her family, perhaps the most intriguing concession was that the chart-topping hit, “Anaconda,” which samples Sir Mix-a-Lot‘s “Baby Got Back”, was created as a joke.

“I wanted to create a song that embraced curvy women. I wanted to be sexual but be playful with it. And I wanted it to be so melodic that even if you don’t understand English you could still go along with the melody and you would have no idea about all the raunchy shit I’m saying—I get a kick out of that. It was simple to write. I just created the melody and then I let the words happen. I started laughing when I said, “Boy toy named Troy.” [Laughs.] That whole song, I was just being dumb. It was a joke. My biggest thing was seeing how my girlfriends Sherika and Thembi were going to react. If they don’t like a song, they’ll be like, “No.” As soon as they walked in the studio, we were laughing and having fun. I thought, if we’re doing this, then everybody is going to have fun with it.”

Even the artwork came about unplanned. Minaj said:

“The artwork was not premeditated. I was shooting the “Anaconda” video and I had my photographer there taking pictures. When I was about to shoot my next scene, I asked to see the pictures he’d taken. He went through five or six and that one came up, and I was like, ‘[Gasps.] Oh my God. Yo, that picture is crazy!’ What made me excited about it was that people hadn’t seen me do a picture like that in years.”

The artist cited the reason for foregoing such revealing shots as professionalism—she had to prove herself in the industry as an artist and a lyricist before doing any sort of shoot that might damage the professional, Boss Girl in the Boys’ Club image that she has worked over the past four years to create. Even the sexy-dancing and hand-slapping when Drake tries to touch her in the “Anaconda”, according to Minaj, were totally impromptu.

Though Minaj has not been playing in the Little Leagues for quite some time now, “Anaconda” is definitely a reclamation of independence in the industry:

“I’ve proven that I’m an MC. I’m a writer; I’m the real deal, so if I want to take sexy pictures, I can. I’m at the level in my career and in my life now where I can do whatever the hell I want to.“

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Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” video was an instant viral monster. But out of the hundreds of millions who have seen it, perhaps none can offer a greater perspective than a bunch of old people. The video ws played for them and the reactions were priceless. They also read some of the lyrics out loud for added hilarity.

The video does add some substance, though, as they discuss the implications of sex in media compared to how it was when they were younger. For contrast, you can also check out a “teens react” version as well. Watch it below.

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Photograph by Mark Seliger for GQ

Nicki Minaj sat down with GQ to talk about her music, her concepts and her image. She explains that her “Anaconda” video is not full of hidden meanings but that it simply depicts what “girls do.” She tells GQ:

I don’t know what there is to really talk about. I’m being serious. I just see the video as being a normal video. I think the video is about what girls do. Girls love being with other girls, and when you go back to us being younger, we would have slumber parties and we’d be dancing with our friends.

Her persona in her video is simply talking about two men she dated in the past. She spits about the good, what they bought her and what they told her. She sees the track as “cheeky, like a funny story.” The playfulness of the track was unfortunately overshadowed by it’s sexiness.

Within her seemingly straightforward video full of twerking, the MC is tastefully aggressively feminine and dominant because the visuals are also about female empowerment. The scene where she is chopping a banana was purposefully placed before her lap dance on top of Drake to convey a novel power dynamic.

That was important for us to show in the kitchen scene, because it’s always about the female taking back the power. If you want to be flirty and funny that’s fine, but always keeping the power and the control in everything.

Photograph by Mark Seliger for GQ

During her interview, the MC also talked about her ever changing image saying:

I always thought that by the time I put out a third album, I would want to come back to natural hair and natural makeup.I thought, I will shock the world again and just be more toned down. I thought that would be more shocking than to keep on doing exactly what they had already seen.

Changes are to come, be on the lookout!

The interview will be released in the November issue of GQ make sure to go and cop it! In the meantime, read the full interview: here

The post Nicki Minaj Explains ‘Anaconda’ Video. She Says It’s About How “Girls Love Being With Other Girls” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Nicki Minaj has basically brought the world to their knees with her newest video for the sexy track, “Anaconda.” The video is so popular that it broke Vevo‘s record for ‘Most Views in 24 Hours’ by hitting 19.6 million views! Nicki topped Miley Cyrus‘ “Wrecking Ball” and hit 37 million in 36 hours.

Nicki will be performing at the VMA’s this weekend so hopefully we will get to see her perform the hit track live! Check out “Anaconda” below if you haven’t already.

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The post We Have 15 Seconds Of Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” Video appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Prepping for her new Polow Da Don and Internz-produced single, Anaconda, Nicki Minaj drops off the thirst trap of 2014. No pasties this time around, we get the view from the other side. Here’s hoping the song is as good as the artwork. The single arrives this Monday. You can check out the full shot below. The Pink Print is coming soon.

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