The influential leader of hip-hop

A few years ago,before her rise began,there were hardly any female rappers of note; now,a new generation,including Azealia Banks,Brianna Perry and Angel Haze,is rising quickly,working territory that she carved out. This is a story about influence,to be sure,but also about the weakening of old walls,and the reshaping of the gates that the gatekeepers keep. Thanks to Nicki Minaj and the possibilities she has laid bare,and to hip-hop’s stasis of masculinity it is,outrageously and unprecedentedly,a more exciting time to be a female rapper than a male one. As much as anything,this reflects what a barren playing field Nicki Minaj,29,arrived onto. She signed with Lil Wayne’s Young Money Records in 2009 on the strength of a couple of years’ worth of mixtapes and street DVD appearances. The Nicki of that era was brassy and coarse,and intermittently clever. She had no real competition,and when she signed with Lil Wayne,there was little indication that she would rewrite the rules for female rappers. She did the obvious,and then more. She became a nimble,evocative rapper. She became an intricate lyricist. She became a thoughtful singer. She became a risky performer. She invented new personae. More than any other rapper in the mainstream,she pushed hard against expectations,and won. Only rarely did she allow herself to appear secondary to her male counterparts—even on songs like Monster,alongside Kanye West and Jay-Z,she more than held her ground. That was part of the blessing of being singular: With no one around to compare herself to,or for others to compare her to,she became her own watermark.

She’s been on the covers of Vibe,XXL and the Fader,sure,but also of Cosmopolitan,Elle and V. The current issue of Paper magazine features a modest Minaj on the cover: salmon blazer,lemon yellow top,Oscar-the-Grouch-green tangle of curls. Inside is a 16-page fashion spread full of models wearing Nicki-inspired fashion: multicoloured Afros,top-volume animal prints,neon makeup and shimmering fabrics,on both men and women. In short,emulating Nicki Minaj isn’t difficult,because there’s so much to play with. And that’s just what a new wave of female rappers has done. Take Azealia Banks,recipient of a heap of Internet affection in recent months. Like Nicki Minaj she raps and sings,and plays with various accents. (Like Nicki she went to LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in Manhattan.)

Nicki Minaj’s success has run parallel to a couple of other female rap mini-movements,including mainstream singers who have made rapping part of their act,like Kesha,Fergie or Cher Lloyd,as well as independent hip-hop figures like the 1990s-bohemian revivalists THEESatisfaction.

But where Nicki Minaj’s influence may be most vital is on artists who ordinarily have no business rapping,but who see in Nicki a relatable role model. Last year Taylor Swift was pronouncing Nicki Minaj’s Super Bass as one of her favourite songs and rapping it for people. And most egregiously there’s Katy Perry’s recent butchering of Paris,the neutered title of the Kanye West and Jay-Z hit. At this point Nicki Minaj is responsible for many children; some of them are bound to misbehave.