Nine years ago, Nicki Minaj released the incendiary clip of her Anaconda hit which, in 24 hours, was seen almost 20 million times on the Vevo platform. A record. Today, this little ultra sexual film full of symbols - now viewed more than 1 billion times on YouTube - has lost none of its luster. And without him, there probably wouldn't have been Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion 's equally legendary WAP . Back to a controversial subject that represents much more than a story of buttocks and thongs in the jungle.
Anaconda's video from Nicki Minaj and this famous Doggystyle position
In rap, feminism and pop culture, there was a before and an after on August 19, 2014. It was on this date that Trinidadian-American rapper Nicki Minaj released the video for her single Anaconda , taken from her third album, The Pinkprint (2014). The cover of the single, where the artist's plump buttocks are exposed in the foreground, had already caused a stir a few days earlier. Many diversions had circulated on the web, in particular an image where the famous posterior was transformed into the letters O of the Google logo.
But on the day the video was released and in the weeks that followed, the excitement escalated. We only talk about Anaconda, whether at the coffee machine, in the media or on social networks. In 24 hours, the clip is seen 19.6 million times on the Vevo platform, beating a record held so far by the very sulphurous video of Wrecking Ball (2013) by Miley Cyrus.
A week later, we are at 100 million views. And today, more than 1 billion people have fantasized about the clip on YouTube. Nicki Minaj was even the first rapper, in 2021, to reach one billion views on the platform.
Fascination of sexual dance
But why such fascination? You have to review the kitsch and sulphurous Anaconda to understand and pay attention to the smallest detail. In this video shot in Los Angeles by American Colin Tilley (to whom we owe clips for Kendrick Lamar , Cardi B and Britney Spears , Dj Snake and Megan Thee Stallion), we see the artist indulging, in a thong, in twerk sessions between friends in the jungle, eating a banana in a suggestive way, embarking on torrid gymnastics sessions and offering a lap dance to a dumbfounded Drake.
Unlike rap clips from male artists, the women aren't mere stooges dancing in trikinis alongside them. They act like "bosses", brandishing the image of "bad bitches".
The cover of Nicki Minaj's single Anaconda, which has been the subject, like the clip, of numerous diversions on the web
Nicki Minaj even mocks men by abusing phallic symbols like when she throws a banana over her shoulder with a disdainful pout. While the presence of juicy fruit and whipped cream clearly evoke female enjoyment. Another edifying symbol? The very title of the piece refers to the phallus but also to the original sin: in paradise, the devil takes the form of a serpent who incites Adam and Eve to bite into the forbidden fruit.
In revenge for offending the planet, one of Nicki Minaj's dancers rehearsing a live performance of the track for the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards was bitten by a snake on set.
In 2014, in the American GQ , Nicki Minaj, falsely naive, nevertheless tries to minimize the symbolic significance of her video. She explains: “ I don't really know what there is to say about this video, I'm serious. I just see this video as a normal video. I think this video is about what girls do.
Girls love hanging out with other girls, and if we could be any younger, we'd want to have slumber parties again, and dance with our friends. My character in the video is just talking about two guys she dated at the time, and why they were good, what they bought her, and what they were telling her. It's daring, like a funny story."In another interview, she simply confessed, half-heartedly, to have wanted to highlight women with shapes.
But the public does not hear it that way. After the broadcast of Anaconda , two camps clash on social networks and in the media . Some find the clip vulgar, demeaning and ridiculous. We can read in the Youtube comments of the time: " This is what is wrong with today's society" or " Nicki gives a degrading image of women ."
Others see a feminist dimension in it. Nicki Minaj, who in 2013 was named one of the "most influential black women" by the prestigious New York Times, establishes its power and assumes a completely uninhibited, primitive, wild and almost shamanic feminine sexuality. Ultimate sign of his dominance?
Her gold jewelry and designer clothes, sported at several points in the clip. But the debate is actually about the very essence of feminism: is the star in this clip a free subject who satisfies her desires or an object of desire subjected to the lustful gazes of others?
Nicki Minaj, one of the rare rappers to have succeeded in a very macho environment and to be respected by her male peers, defends here sorority (she sits in the middle of other women) as well as a pop and sex-positive feminism , a current born in the 80s in the United States, in reaction to a branch of anti-pornography and anti-prostitution feminism.
At the time, his approach was not commonplace, which explains why it shocked so many well-meaning people.
Since then, many clips of rappers and pop stars have surfed the wave. The most beautiful heir of Anaconda undoubtedly remains the WAP (2020) by Cardi B, featuring Megan Thee Stallion, who also provoked controversy with her deluge of erotic scenes and sexual allegories.
Anaconda Storie from Nicki Minaj
Today, the Anaconda music video is an avant-garde object. It is even a work of art in its own right that has spawned numerous diversions (notably a legendary "lip sync" by Eva Longoria on American television in 2016) and inspired artists such as the French Camille Henrot .
In 2015, she exhibited in an art center in Azerbaijan a series of delicate drawings reminiscent of the poetic line of Matisse and showing Nicki Minaj dancing as in the famous clip. In an interview with the Guardian in 2015, the artist explained: "I was struck by its radicalism and majesty. It didn't seem particularly sexy to me. It's more like a statement about letting go of stereotypes and about self-acceptance. It's vulgar, but it's beautiful."
Shocked by the slut-shaming of which the rapper was the object , Camille Henrot adds: " I like to think that she created Anaconda to provoke criticism. She abused the archetype of the " black girl seen in the clips "to get attention and create hate, if only so we too can realize our aversion to the sexualization of women."
As if, in a gesture that is almost performance, the rapper had shown a caricature of her character to better push those who would watch her into their entrenchments, thus revealing their prejudices in broad daylight.
on women and especially on women of color. We can indeed see in the criticisms aroused by the clip a form of misogynoir, this misogyny turned towards black women and linked to both origins and gender. It is the same phenomenon that has been updated, very recently, in the hateful comments poured out against Aya Nakamura , in particular those relating to her appearance.
More than a story of buttocks and thongs in the jungle, Anaconda is a fascinating cultural object that sums up societal issues that the world is still facing today.