Nicki Minaj - Massive Attack - April 2010

Massive Attack was released in April 2010. This was Nicki’s first music single video with her as the solo performer. This video emphasises on the colour pink. This is because Nicki has established herself to be a ‘Human Barbie’, an identity which she has created to reflect her personality and to establish herself as an upcoming new music artist. The Massive Attack video was distributed through mainstream television channels such as MTV and Kiss therefore widely consumed by a mainstream audience of which reached a high number in the singles charts. The video did particularly well as Nicki is signed to Young Money and Cash Money records which other well known artists such as Lil Wayne and Drake are part of. Before releasing her own solo video Nicki also featured in Cash Money and Young Money record video’s such as, Bedrock which helped to establish her as a music artist.

The colour pink is suggested to be a stereotypical female colour which is associated with the plastic Barbie Doll toy. Nicki heavily uses the colour pink in her videos as it reflects the Barbie image she is creating. This theme of pink is used concurrently throughout all of her solo videos. In this video for example Nicki drives a pink Lamborghini and wears a pink wig which connotes the Barbie image. In this video Nicki makes bold statements which suggests to the audience even though she is a new artist she is niche in that she has a very strong personal identity for herself. An example of this is the eccentric clothing garments Nicki wears. In the desert scene she wears a pink leotard with belt straps wrapped around herself. This type of clothing she wears is not every day conventional clothes therefore suggests she is trying to make her own fashion statement and that she has a creative mind. The way in which she dresses also links in with the locations of where the music video is shot. For example in the scene where she is rapping about the jungle, Nicki is dressed in a skimpy one piece green swimming costume. The location of this scene is in the jungle therefore the colour green is predominant in that both Nicki and the jungle blend in. This feature is also seen in some of her more recent music video’s where she is dressed as a Geisha. The location where she is dressed as a Geisha is a martial arts studio. In another video Nicki is dressed as a mermaid and the location is a swimming pool. The location and her costume blend in as they are associated together.  The way in which Nicki dresses i.e. showing off her womanly assets, suggests that she is trying to create sex appeal which leaves her open to the male gaze therefore attracting a male audience as well as attracting a female audience.