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  • The Atlantic

    Nicki Minaj Guards a Shrinking Kingdom

    The rapper emphasizes her smarts and ferocity on her fourth album, <em>Queen</em>, but to what end?
    by Spencer Kornhaber Aug 15, 2018 5 minutes
    Source: Mario Anzuoni / Reuters

    Donald Trump’s rhetoric may be coarsening most everything in America, but might the already rowdy realm of commercial rap at least be safe? Don’t bet on it. Midway through Nicki Minaj’s “LLC,” one line washed me with a nausea of familiarity: “All these low-IQ hoes baffle me.” Low-IQ as a modifier: Isn’t that Trump’s thing? The president makes a habit of invoking IQ as an insult, drawing on an aptitude test that’s otherwise been falling out of fashion due to, among other things, a historical association with racism.

    Minaj may or may not be channeling Trump with that line, which certainly isn’t the toughest dis heard on her 19-track fourth album, Queen. And her rivals’ intellects have long been in her crosshairs, as heard on 2011’s delicious Lil’ Kim takedown “Stupid Hoe.” But lately, as she’s returned to aMinaj has

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