Nicki Minaj wants women to stop disrespecting other women, a call that came in response to New York Times Magazine’s Vanessa Grigoriadis’s implication that Minaj “thrives on drama.”
The interview is full of interesting comments from Minaj regarding tension between labelmate Drake and boyfriend Meek Mill, and strife between Lil Wayne and Cash Money Records CEO Bryan “Birdman” Williams.
Toward the end of the interview, Grigoriadis got some clarification on a problem that’s far more widespread than the rumor mill of social media or record label problems: women who blame one another for the actions of men.
“Is there a part of you that thrives on drama, or is it no, just pain and unpleasantness—”
The room went quiet, but only for an instant.
”That’s disrespectful,’’ Minaj said, drawing herself up in the chair. ‘“Why would a grown-ass woman thrive off drama?”
You can almost hear the silence in that room. Minaj was getting ready to explain a deep conviction she holds and has raised before in interviews: that women aren’t treated with the same respect as their male peers. Minaj then explained that disrespecting someone is a choice, one she thinks women make too often with one another:
That’s the typical thing that women do. What did you putting me down right there do for you? Women blame women for things that have nothing to do with them. ...
To put down a woman for something that men do, as if they’re children and I’m responsible, has nothing to do with you asking stupid questions, because you know that’s not just a stupid question. That’s a premeditated thing you just did.
It’s not the first time Minaj turned an interview into an educational moment
“It’s like we don’t even value relationships anymore,” Minaj told the Breakfast Club’s Angie Martinez about managing relationships while famous. “Fame is the strongest drug known to man.” Minaj just wants women to be treated with the respect they deserve, famous or not. “Is that wrong for wanting more for myself, wanting people to treat me with respect?” she asked the world during a famous 2010 MTV documentary clip that went viral.
“I’m a human being,” she sarcastically reminds us.
During an interview with ABC Nightline’s Juju Chang in 2012, Minaj said it was “irksome” and off the mark to be constantly compared by the media with another talented artist — Lady Gaga. When Grigoriadis asked the same question three years later, though, she declined to comment.
As for Grigoriadis herself? She respectfully admitted that Minaj reacted fairly to her leading question about “thriving” on drama, just before suggesting that Minaj’s reaction could have been a “convenient way of maintaining control” during the interview. So it looks like the famous rapper still has one person to convince that treating people with respect isn’t just a soundbite.
