NPR

Nicki Minaj Is The 21st Century's Insatiable Hip-Hop Monarch

Minaj indelibly changed the hip-hop landscape in the past decade. She wanted the throne. Now that she has it, she isn't going to relinquish it to anyone — male or female — gunning for that title.
Nicki Minaj performs during the 2015 Billboard Music Awards.

It's not enough to make list after list. The Turning the Tables project seeks to suggest alternatives to the traditional popular music canon, and to do more than that, too: to stimulate conversation about how hierarchies emerge and endure. This year, Turning the Tables considers how women and non-binary artists are shaping music in our moment, from the pop mainstream to the sinecures of jazz and contemporary classical music. Our list of the 200 Greatest Songs By Women+ offers a soundtrack to a new century. This series of essays takes on another task.

The 25 arguments writers make in these pieces challenge the usual definitions of influence. Some rethink the building legacies of popular artists; others celebrate those who create within subcultures, their innovations rippling outward over time. As always, women forge new pathways in sound; today, they also make waves

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