Nicki Minaj Is Wack

At this point in her career, Nicki Minaj’s only enemy is herself and “Super Bass.” That track, which catapulted Minaj into a mainstream as cross-genre artist and onto the iPods of Taylor Swift fans everywhere, will be her “Lose Yourself” — the song that defines Minaj’s career until she can replace it with, essentially, “Super Bass 2.0.”

This is not for lack of trying, as Minaj seems determined to reconcile her harder past with her poppy present — and make fans forget about the sheen of “Super Bass” and her guest spot on David Guetta’s “Turn Me On” by releasing the official video for “Stupid Hoe.”

“Stupid Hoe” is the anti-“Super Bass” in every sense. Remember when she released “Massive Attack”? Yeah, it’s like that track — grimy and gritty and fantastic, in ways the glossy, but equally great “Super Bass” is not

On “Stupid Hoe,” Minaj flings words off her tongue like she’s waging a war. Her target, presumably, is Lil Kim (the video for How Many Licks in particular), but really her bouncing rhymes could be shot at any contemporary female pop star. Now that Minaj is in the same playing field as Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, she could even be launching an assault on them, too — and if the frantic video is any indication, Gaga’s “Bad Romance” is one of the prime targets.

You can’t help but notice the comparisons between “Stupid Hoe” and Bad Romance. At points, Minaj’s pink hair looks strikingly similar to Gaga’s blonde locks in “Bad Romance,” an Minaj’s digitally-altered bug eyes look creepily similar, too.