Do you think if Twitter was around when Boticelli dropped The Birth of Venus back in the day that “#twitpicyourreactiontoTBOV” would be trending with a bunch of masturbation allusions? Am I comparing the Anaconda video to The Birth of Venus? God damn straight I am. The song, I could take it or leave it. It’s not awful, but stands as a weird diversion from Nicki’s 2014 lead-up to The Pinkprint – from the hard-hitting string of remixes to the power-ballad pop of Pills N Potions. But the video elevates the track into something else, contextualising a lucid ode to booty with a lucid depiction of incredible booty. The Sir Mix-a-lot sample that teetered towards obnoxious instead has an air of the transgressive. The hammering of “MY ANACONDA DON’T” is wielded in a way that divorces itself from the original source. Even when she’s “on some dumb shit”, Nicki is smarter than anyone else in the game.
Nicki Minaj : Anaconda
