Terran’s Take: Nicki Minaj’s “Only”

Terran Warden, A&E Columnist

Nicki Minaj, as we all know, is the 31-year-old female rapper who broke through the music scene in 2010 with her album “Pink Friday” and the overplayed single “Super Bass.”

Since then she has released two other albums: “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded” in 2012 and “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded: The ReUp” later in 2012. The titles angered me more than her annoying voice.

Minaj is currently working on her next album, pushed back to a release date in December. The first single, “Anaconda,” has been unescapable. On Nov. 7, Minaj gave us a look into the upcoming album with a lyric video for her song “Only,” which features Drake, Lil Wayne, and Chris Brown.

That doesn’t seem extremely exciting — a lyric video — but wait till you hear this.

The video is a black and white animated video of Nicki Minaj standing as Hitler and surrounded by other imagery similar to Nazi Germany.

I would tell you to go watch it on YouTube but I don’t want to give her any more views on imagery that should be unacceptable.

Instead, here are screenshots from the video, so you get the picture.

The video begins with Minaj sitting atop a throne, surrounded by servants in front of a crowd of soldiers and two red flags emblazoned with the initials “YM” for her record label Young Money Entertainment, which looks hauntingly similar to the swastika.

The scene then transfers to imagery of Nazi Germany, where there are tanks lined up on a red pathway headed toward a powerful building, where we see a statue of Minaj in her signature “Anaconda” pose: once again making her Hitler.

Then, we see Minaj traveling down the pathway toward the building that is now surrounded by soldiers instead of tanks.

Each soldier is dressed with the red armbands seen in Nazi Germany and decorated with the YM logo (her version of a swastika).

Okay, this video is getting crazy. And not the good kind (I am a Lady Gaga fan, remember?).

Not only is the video making nearly everyone who watches it uncomfortable, the lyrics at this point are getting purely ridiculous.

Minaj spits out lines like “My man full, he just ate, I don’t duck nobody but tape. Yeah, that was a set up for a punchline on duct tape” and “I don’t f**k with them chickens unless they last name is cutlet. Let it soak in like seasonin.”

Finally, we get a break from Minaj’s horrific verses and Chris Brown begins his part. Brown’s part of the video is even more offensive than before. Brown is known for his multiple hit songs like “With You” and for beating his then-girlfriend, Rhianna, nearly to death — maybe the fact that he is helping to offend everyone who watches the video isn’t a surprise.

Brown is drawn as a Nazi commander, while showing scenes of bombs flying down on the city and fighter jets flying above while singing the lines “Sparks in the air like the fourth of July.” Like, are you kidding me right now?

Brown is also shown standing in front of a blank wall covered in nothing but large guns.

Then we get an illustration of the other participants – Minaj as Hitler, Brown as a Nazi Commander, Drake as the Nazi Pope (…?), and Lil Wayne as a business man (..?) shown in the single artwork.

Drake, the Canadian-born, half-Jewish, rapper comes in showing him illustrated as a Priest rapping in a church, along the pews while the YM swastika-like flags repeatedly adorn the church.

Ironically, Drake gives us the line “So that everybody else in the room is uncomfortable” — which we are while watching this video! But he’s talking about his obsession with thick girls and their butts, which only adds to my anger for this song.

After repeating Chris Brown’s verse and animation, Lil Wayne comes in to close up the song (finally).

Lil Wayne is a business man, as I guessed previously, but he is shown using his power to infiltrate the city with Nazi feelings — by showing the YM swastika logo going across every screen in a control room. At one point, Minaj has a gas mask, like the ones Nazi’s used while poisoning Jewish people.

The video is finally over, after 5 minutes and 10 seconds.

Not only are the actual images of the video hauntingly similar to everything we have seen and learned about the Holocaust, the entire video is done in a black and white style matching exactly to the film “Schindler’s List” and to old black-and-white videos.

This video is purely unacceptable, and that is all there is to it. There is no justification. There is no defending. There is no legitimate reasoning.

Literally no reasoning. The song is entirely about having sex with Minaj, which has no relation to the horrific crimes of Nazi Germany.

I hope everyone continues to tell Minaj how wrong it was, as they are on Twitter, Tumblr and in YouTube comments.

Do not give her any more views on the video and do not support her actions, please.

In other news:

• Chris Brown made headlines again, outside of this video, for posting a huge Instagram caption on a picture of Adrienne Bailon for her and Tamar Braxton talking, what he saw as horrible, about Brown and his girlfriend on their talk show “The Real” on Nov. 3. Go on his profile; it is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read.
• Lena Dunham denies accusations of molesting her sister from those who read her new book “Not That Kind of Girl.”
• Beyonce will be releasing a new version of her self-titled album “Beyonce” that came out as a surprise last year. The album is set to come out Nov. 24 and is rumored to be a box set with two new tracks.
• Amanda Bynes is back to Twitter, and told us through her tweets that not only she hates her parents (once again) but she has been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and Manic Depression.
• Janet Jackson made her first public appearance in over a year at a fashion show in Dubai.
• Lily Allen opened up about the stillbirth of her son in 2010 for the first time on the UK Television Show, The Jonathan Ross Show.
• Carrie Underwood revealed she will be giving birth to a baby boy with her husband, Mike Fisher.
• To keep up with the Kardashians: Kendall Jenner celebrated her 19th birthday on Nov. 3 and Kris Jenner celebrated her 59th birthday on Nov. 8 with her 33-year-old boyfriend Corey Gamble. Khloe Kardashian hinted at a marriage with rapper French Montana.
• Taylor Swift pulled all of her music from Spotify, saying that she feels music should not be for free; therefore, saying she is not an artist, she is a businesswoman. And I will never again support her.
• Marina and the Diamonds released the tracklisting for her upcoming album, “FROOT” on Sunday. The first music video for the album was released on Tuesday for the song “FROOT”.
• Selena Gomez released a new song and music video, “The Heart Wants What It Wants” beginning with a monologue capturing Justin Bieber’s mental abuse while they were in a relationship. The song is her first work after her stay in a rehabilitation facility.
• I met Tony Bennett Thursday night!

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