Young Money

Drake dropped the new video for his latest single "Over" just a few days ago and as an advocate for his lush throaty rap I feel it's my duty to share it with you.



Currently "Over" is working out as a bit of a grower: it certainly doesn't strike me with tingles of excitement in the way that "Best I Ever Had" did and yet there's something soothing about the streaks of light juddering in the video, the constant builds, the shrieks of the strings. To be honest, Drake could do a voice-over for Pingu and I'd still love it.

On a Young Money note, Barbie wannabe and Usher groupie Nicki Minaj recently attracted some venom in the form of a Guardian music blog on "the rise of the titillating female rapper".
I read this piece with interest and can't help but agree with the author: it seems that "the shift in expectations of women has led to a new reality: a successful female artist must not only be talented, but also able to titillate the gaze of an assumed male viewer."

Don't get me wrong: I massively enjoyed Minaj doing it for the girls with Young Money and doing it to get the girls with Usher, her lyrics are blinders and her delivery slicker than your average, but Latoya Peterson makes a fair point. Not only are women like Minaj (and Kelis before her) asserting a large degree of male aggression in their approach, their overt sexuality in the pelvic grinding, wide eyed blinking and cleavage shots favoured by the former surely only serves to enforce weak female stereotypes rather than breaking new ground and providing the pop world with strong female role models. Where's Lauryn Hill when you need her eh?

Peterson's conclusion resonates strongly: "while the same tropes still hold, one can only hope that eventually the increasing female representation in rap will lead to women challenging the norms of the male-dominated space, not just performing in it."

Let's just hope that there are women out there who, rather than being inspired to strip to teeny tiny knickers and get their boobs out, are inspired by the likes of Minaj to prove that there are women who can be successful without becoming a cheap gimmick of an age old stereotype.


© Miranda Thompson 2010
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