THE FAMOUS DOOR AUGUST 5, 2012
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Nicki Minaj wants to be the Marilyn Monroe of hip-hop. So let’s just say she is. After all, being a member of Minaj’s audience is all about submitting to her will, just as inducing submission was one of the main objectives of Marilyn’s art. This Sunday was the fiftieth anniversary of Monroe’s death, and the occasion brings to mind how much Monroe and Minaj have in common as musical performers, and how different they are in important ways.
Like Marilyn Monroe, Nicki Minaj is a sex symbol for her time and a magnificently theatrical self-construction, and she has no singing voice to speak of. We will probably never know exactly how bad Minaj’s singing really is, because Autotune and other studio effects do so much of the work on her recordings. No matter: Her music is ludicrous fun, and much of its appeal lies in the coy way Minaj plays off her own amateurism as a singer. In that, she’s not far from Marilyn Monroe, either. A rare moment of unironic self-seriousness in Minaj’s music to date happens to be the song she recorded in tribute to her idol, “Marilyn Monroe.”
I’m not going to get all Mailerish here and spew quasi-intellectualisms about Marilyn’s genius. That she was a titanic presence in mid-twentieth-century pop culture is well established and well worth honoring this week. To me, Monroe is particularly fascinating as a singer, because she brought a high level of craft to her music—not the kind of craft that we associate with musical technique, but the stagecraft necessary to provide musical performances with personality and emotional force. She was not blessed with much physical endowment as a singer. Her voice was small and thin; her intonation was shaky, at its best; and she could barely control her vibrato. Yet she brought the full potency of her persona to her music, putting across a song with the same smart, delicately balanced, cheeky mix of open carnality and winking humor that distinguished her acting. Indeed, she wasn’t singing, exactly, but acting when she sang, and acting is what makes great vocal performances great.
The best evidence is certainly her eminently likable, hot rendition of Helen Kane 1920s hit, “I Wanna Be Loved By You,” in Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot:
10 comments
Sorry buddy, Minaj is to Monroe, who merged sexuality and sensuality, vulnerability and stunning, heart breaking luminous beauty, what Albee is to Shakespeare, what Eddie Kendricks is to Mario Lanza, or for that matter and more conventionally what a mouse is to an elephant.
- basman
August 5, 2012 at 9:32pm
Nice try, Nicki. Better luck in your next life. In this one you look more like Mike Tyson in drag than Marilyn.
- magboy47.
August 6, 2012 at 2:50am
Kudos to Hajdu for actually bothering to think about the subject rather than spoting off the usual knee-jerk blowhard nonesense "Old>New always in music" which the commenters seem to hold as gospel.
- SarabandeG
August 6, 2012 at 1:14pm
First of all, the phrase "Marilyn Monroe of hip-hop," as far as I can tell, comes from Hajdu himself, and not Minaj. At no point does Minaj equate herself to Monroe. If you had looked at her lyrics before criticizing her (and I'm sure you all did, right?), you would see that her song is more of a tribute to Monroe, than a claiming of her mantle - much like Elton John's "Candle in the Wind." Do you also feel the need to point out John's shortcoming vis a vis Marilyn Monroe? Or is the nerve of the, let's just say, "non-blonde", Minaj admiring Monroe just too much for you? Full disclosure: Again, I say this without any particular allegiance to Ms. Minaj's oeuvre.
- bunthorne
August 6, 2012 at 1:50pm
Yeah that's it Bunthorne, it's "too much for me." The thrust of Hajdu's comments is the likenesses musical and some otherwise between Mike Tyson with a wig and Marilyn Monroe. And I'm here to tell you there are none, plus that it must be a slow day on the ranch for this kind of nonsense to see the journalistic light of day.
- basman
August 6, 2012 at 3:45pm
Sore spot? None whatsoever - as I said, I carry no water for Minaj, as far as I am concerned, a modestly talented hip-hop/pop novelty act. Will she be remembered in five or fifty years time? Almost certainly not, though I am not familiar with how Monoe's contemporaries viewed her chances for being remembered fifty years on. No, my point was with as Sarabande put it, the "knee-jerk" dismissal and unfavorable comparisons between Monroe and Minaj simply because someone else called her the "Marilyn Monroe of hip-hop." Again, if an artist makes a person the subject of a work of art, is that artist implicitly comparing themselves to that person, and even further, equating themselves with that person? If so, that's pretty big news to me, and I would guess most of the world of art. In this piece, Hajdu only compares Minaj's and Monroe's singing ability, and neither comes up strong in that regard. I haven't seen Minaj as an actress, but I have seen Monroe in that capacity, and she wasn't much there either. That just leaves Monroe's iconic beauty and screen presence, the things she is rightfully remembered for fifty years on. Is Minaj as beautiful as Monroe? Personally, I would say no, but of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. "Mike Tyson in drag" is perhaps not the most sensitive way of putting things. And yes, this is not exactly hard-hitting journalism, and probably not equal to the amount of time devoted to it so far. Still, LW's Springsteen piece inspired two pages of commentary and counting, and that was certainly not Pulitzer material either.
- bunthorne
August 6, 2012 at 4:07pm
...Like Marilyn Monroe, Nicki Minaj is a sex symbol for her time and a magnificently theatrical self-construction... This is more than a comparison of them as singers. And if Minaj is a sex symbol for her time, the time is sexually impoverished.
- basman
August 6, 2012 at 4:31pm
Also, there's no comparison between this bit of inane bending to sheer mediocrity (standing is the shadow of Monroe's luminously great presence) and Wieseltier's fine and thoughtful piece. Agree with him or not, Wieseltier is altogether commanding in taking the measure of both Springsteen and Remnick, covering a lot of interesting territory along the way. The two pages of commentary are testament to that. Hajdu's above is a journalistic burp.
- basman
August 6, 2012 at 4:44pm
"This is more than a comparison of them as singers." Yes, you're right about that. To me, it just comes down to whether or not it's fair to attack someone for merely name-checking a beloved icon as an inspiration. After, Minaj is far from the only performer who will never equal Marilyn Monroe in terms of fame, beauty and regard. Shall we belittle all of them, then? Hajdu was just trying to make a point, however strained, that Minaj was paying tribute to Monroe in her own way (and perhaps being successful in that regard). Ok, this horse died a long time ago, and is now being beaten beyond recognition. Apologies. "And if Minaj is a sex symbol for her time, the time is sexually impoverished." I wholeheartedly agree
- bunthorne
August 6, 2012 at 4:50pm
Know nothing much about Niki Minaj (although she looks cute in a blonde wig), but I've heard enough of Monroe's singing in movies and such to say that Mr. Hadju has pinned her strengths and weaknesses quite well. The voice was thin, but she was a spirited, good-humored interpreter of lyrics. Not that she was completely hopeless at ballads, either; she brought a wistful intensity to the songs she performed in RIVER OF NO RETURN as well. A major, titanic musical talent? No, but much less annoying than several contemporary singers I could think of.
- lump516
August 11, 2012 at 8:20pm