If you’ve ever wanted a saucy selfie of Nicki Minaj to come to life and serenade you about video games, comic books, content creators and the rap game, you’re in luck. Earlier today Minaj released a video for her already infamous new song “Chun-Li.” The video is a purple-hued, vertical selfie of Minaj that just never seems to end. Dressed in leather, lace and with her hair in a bun, Nicki raps some of the most relatable lines in the game today like, “Give me the password to the f*cking wi-fi,” while also repping Storm, the X-Men, Lara Croft, and of course Chun-Li herself.
Lyrically Minaj manages to predict the reaction this song would get from bloggers and Tweeters alike. It caused a bit of controversy with some muted screams of appropriation, and there has been a bad faith attempt by some in the media to position Minaj and Cardi B in some kind of beef war. But Nicki is smarter than that, Nick saw the future, Nicki knew. As she says herself “Oh, I get it, huh / they paintin’ me out to be the bad guy / well, When’s the last time you see a bad guy do the rap game like me?”
Ultimately, Nicki Minaj is right: We do need rappers like her.
