https://www.instagram.com/p/BYx-rPFF_kt/?taken-by=dazed
Dazed magazine describes itself as “a lightning rod for cultural provocation,” so their selection of Nicki Minaj — no stranger to controversy herself — to cover their Autumn/Winter 2017 issue is certainly a natural fit and should come as no surprise. Nicki has been laying low lately, aside from her typically animated guest appearances on “Swish Swish” and “Rake It Up,” while preparing her first album in three years, but it appears she’s ready to return to the solo spotlight, with not just one, but three covers for her Dazed feature.
The three covers each feature some trademark aspect of Nicki’s personality, from the oddball to the grandiose, with one featuring “high art”-leaning, grainy black-and-white candid shot, one placing a normal colored cutout of Nicki’s face on a photonegative shoulders-up portrait, and the last one placing Nicki astride a rearing stallion, looking for all the world like a conquering emperor, with those 40-inch bundles flying behind her. All three proclaim the “Ten Year Reign Of Nicki Minaj,” commemorating the decade since her Playtime Is Over mixtape debuted in July of 2007.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYvg7dhl7bk/?taken-by=dazed
In the feature, she addresses her accomplishments, as well as the driving factor that motivated them. “I came into this industry and demanded more. I wanted more for female rappers. I wanted more for black women. I wanted to make more than what men were making. And I did it. I did it.” Which is true; as much criticism as she received for using non-rap business successes as ammunition in her seemingly interminably rap beef with Remy Ma, very few hip-hop entertainers have accomplished as much in as short a time frame as Nicki, and that certainly deserves recognition. You can see all three covers in the tweet below.
https://twitter.com/NICKIMINAJ/status/906195168713375744
