Nicki Minaj is No Lady Gaga

Last September, Out Magazine did a cover story on up-and-coming rapper Nicki Minaj who seems to be poised to follow in the steps of Lady Gaga as the next big female music sensation. With her oversized personality, outrageous costumes, and openly embracing her queer fans, Minaj has won the sort of gay following that tends to help many new stars make it to the next level.

But should gay fans be quite so quick to embrace Minaj? Maybe not.

After first claiming she was bisexual, Minaj took all that back last June in an interview with Black Men magazine. As AfterEllen.com noted at the time about Minaj's recanting her bisexuality, "The last thing we need is another straight woman pretending to identify with our sexuality to lure us as customers or straight men into thinking they are their dream girl."

As if that wasn't enough of a reason to doubt Minaj's gay-positive credentials, last week saw her release a single with Eminem called "Roman's Revenge" from her upcoming album Pink Friday. The graphic song includes sexually explict and violent lyrics, and more of Eminem's well known homophobia.

At one point Eminem raps: 

A-a-a-a-all you little faggots can suck it, no homo but I’ma stick it to ‘em like refrigerator magnets 

Given that Minal told Out she wanted to bring her gay fans to her next level of success, teaming up with Eminem and performing lyrics like that seems an odd way of doing that or embracing her gay fans. In fact, it feels more like doing whatever it takes to get to that next level.

Even odder is that "Roman's Revenge" is apparently referencing Minaj's alter ego Roman Zolansky. While Out says Roman is a flamboyant gay man, it isn't clear that Minaj has given it that much thought. During the interview, she sort of comes to that conclusion about the persona, but none of the songs featuring "Roman" seem to back that up including "Bottoms Up" with Trey Songz which seems about as gay as your typical rap video full of hyspersexualized heterosexual images. She also refers to "Roman" as being spastic and crazy in an interview she does with Songz. 

And why on earth would a gay character perform in a song with Eminnem with those gay-bashing lyrics? In fact the song mostly seems about Minaj staking out her claim as rap music's number one female artist, and any claim of Roman being some kind of gay-alter ego seems to have been made only talking to Out. And what better way to please your gay fans than by claiming you have a gay-alter ego?

To be fair, Minaj did record a (slightly odd) video supporting her gay fans who might be feeling suicidal, and she has gone on record as being grateful for her gay fans. But she also told OUT she hadn't told anyone she was doing the cover and definitely wasn't doing it because she way gay. Given her previous opportunistic faumosexuality and her work with Eminem, it's hard not to feel a little suspicions of Minaj.

We're curious what AfterElton.com members think of this artist.