"Or a Real, real bad lesbian": Nicki Minaj and the acknowledgement of queer desire in hip-hop culture

Hip hop has been defined as a hypermasculine and at times homophobic musical genre; however, female rappers, unlike their mainstream male counterparts, have taken opportunities to express queer desire in their music. This essay explores how female rapper Nicki Minaj baits queer desire as a mode of empowerment, self-objectification, and fantasy through an examination of her musical works and associated images. The author argues that her expressions of queerness reify both hetero-and homosexual desirability while addressing sexual desire and fulfillment in her music and contribute to creating space for varying possibilities of black female sexual subjectivities in an environment hostile to such exploration.