Nicki Minaj is one of the most famous rappers in the world right now. She managed to find her way to the top fairly quickly, and people just adore her. They love her fashion sense, her crazy wardrobe choices and her songs. People also love that she’s never afraid to say what she thinks and do what she says. She’s been known to treat people with kindness and respect when they treat her with the same, and she’s been known to throw down with those whom she believes are not in it to win it. She’s a controversial public figure, to say the least. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t take a few lessons from the superstar and her Twitter account.
“Some people have to put in work. Others get to cut corners. We see it but don’t say it. Welcome to the real world”
Nicki Minaj posted this on her twitter account not too long after she seemed to throw down Iggy Azalea at an awards ceremony. Honestly speaking, not one of us has a clue what on earth Minaj is talking about or whom she is talking about. All we know for certain is that she seems to be saying that sometimes people have to work harder than other people to get what they want out of life. Whether or not she’s digging at Iggy is unclear, but we do know it’s a good lesson to remember.
“Racism is alive and well”
It is. It’s not ideal and it’s pretty awful, but it is. Even when you don’t think that racism is alive, it is. Even if you don’t think that anything is racist, it is. The day that racism is over is the day that we stop describing people as African-American or White-American, or the day we stop describing people as Asian or Spanish. Racism will be over the day no one gives a darn what color anyone else is, and when they no longer feel the need to describe someone’s skin color in a story when the color of their skin is not relevant.
“Like serioiusly. It’s but so much a person can take”
Truth; I feel this same way about 10 minutes into any grocery shopping trip because I’ve already stopped 19 times to answer the inevitable, “Are they twins?” question and those that spin off of that. All I wanted was milk and I’ve been there for 2 hours. Oh well; it happens. The lesson in this particular tweet is that you simply can’t take everything. Sometimes people have a boiling point and they can’t take much more than that. You become famous knowing people won’t love you all the time, but that doesn’t make it any easier when people are always hating.
“Comin thru to Brazil”
It doesn’t seem like there is any lesson to be had in this particular tweet, but Brazil responded, and that is where in lies the lesson. Brazil responded, “No thanks….really, stay wherever it is you are,” and tagged Minaj in the tweet. It was all in good fun, but it does go to show that sometimes people are mean and you just have to let it go, ignore the haters and expect that not everyone in life is going to love you endlessly.
“Just give free health care to all @BarackObama what can we do?”
There is a lesson here. The lesson is that health care is ridiculous. As someone who paid entirely too much for health care prior to Obamacare – and now I pay 5 times what I paid in the past – I agree. The real lesson in this tweet, however, is that we should feel free to ask for what we want and then question how we can make it happen. Instead of demanding change, ask how we can actually institute change. We can want all we want, but until we figure out how to act, it’s meaningless.
“Tried to keep quiet but let’s go”
Everyone feels like this sometimes. You can only take so much sitting back and letting people talk before you feel the need to step in and make some changes. However, the real lesson in this particular Minaj tweet is that sometimes you can’t let people get away with things. Sometimes you have to speak up, do what it takes and make it known that you won’t settle for inappropriate behavior, rumors and behavior. Good for you, Nicki Minaj, for choosing the high road first, at least.
“What God blessed, no man can curse”
Well, isn’t that the truth. The lesson in this tweet is that you need to remember that there is good in the world, and that your belief is what is going to help you get through the day. People can say all they want about you, or Minaj in this case, but at the end of the day, God blessed you with something and no one can take that away from you. For Minaj, it’s her talent. You might not think she has any, but she’s a mega-famous superstar and everyone knows her name, so someone else disagrees.
“The devil is a liar”
It’s true. The devil is a liar. He will tell you whatever it is you want to hear, but it’s only so he can take advantage of you. What we get out of this particular tweet is that sometimes people lie, and they do it so that they can get something they want from you. When someone lies to you, it’s the devil within them that’s making them behave in his manner. Go ahead and believe him if you want, but remember that he lies and that no good comes out of listening to people like this.
“The media puts words in my mouth all the time and this is no different. I will always take a stance on women writing b/c I believe is us!”
While we know Minaj is referring to her feud with Iggy Azalea over writing your own lyrics when you sing, there is another lesson to be found in this tweet, and it’s in the first sentence. The media – and others – are prone to putting words into other people’s mouths. It happens. It happens a lot. It’s unfortunate, and it shouldn’t be allowed, but it does happen. You have to be careful when listening to a recount of what someone said from a secondary source.
“The media could pee on your leg and tell you it’s raining. You’d believe it. You’d believe you were an adopted martian if TMZ told you so. #stopit5”
You laugh, but it’s true. If TMZ told you that your mom is Marilyn Monroe and your dad is a crocodile from the Miami zoo, you’d laugh and ignore it as complete junk. If they tell you Nicki Minaj and Jennifer Aniston are getting married and having a baby together, you’d believe it in a second. The lesson here is that not everything you read is the truth. Also, a lot of what TMZ has to say is not the truth. There; now you know the truth.
“Thanks haters!”
This is an excellent example of a quote we can learn something from on Nicki Minaj’s twitter page. Why? It doesn’t say much, after all. However, it does say more between the lines than it does in the lines. What does it say? It says that sometimes you have to thank the people who are hard on you, who don’t like you and who feel that you’re not worthy. Why thank them? Thank them because they are the people who give you your motivation. It’s their criticism and hatred that makes you want to be a better person.
“Would you guys be interested in saving lives?”
Nicki Minaj sent out this tweet after finding out that one of her little cousins needed a bone marrow transplant. She spent several weeks after that attempting to educate and bring awareness to her followers on the importance of donating bone marrow. We don’t know if she was successful or not, but we assume that she had to have done something right with as many people that love her. The lesson here is that you can help; you have a voice, so use it.
“Laughin at stuff you can’t even do”
In all honesty, Nicki Minaj did not use the word “stuff,” she used another word that starts with an “S” but we can’t use that here. Now that you get the point, there is a bit of a lesson in this tweet that you can learn and use within the confines of your own life. The lesson here is that sometimes you have to laugh at what you can do when other people are giving you a hard time. Maybe you aren’t perfect, but you have skills that other people cannot boast, and you have to laugh at that.
“Ha! Thank you for understanding my creative humor and sarcasm Mr. President, the smart ones always do,”
Now, this is a tweet that has several lessons. One is that sarcasm and humor rock. The other lesson is that our president is apparently spending a great deal of time on Twitter responding to people such as Nicki Minaj, which probably is not in his job description. Like him or not, the less here is that he’s a celebrity-lover who displays a great deal of ‘time’ responding to their rants and comments on twitter.
“Awesome! Now I can tell my grandchildren that the 1st black president of the United States took the time to address a Nicki Minaj question,”
Another great lesson; yes, it’s great that the president takes time to answer the questions of his people. However, the real lesson here is that while he’s taking the time to address questions that Nicki Minaj fires off on Twitter, he’s not doing presidential things. Sure, he should get a break to play candy crush or browse his social media pages like the rest of us, but he seems to do it just as often as the rest of us, which would be fine if he didn’t have a very busy and very important job to do.
“Deleting my twitter,”
She really did. It was a good lesson for people to see that sometimes you just have to step away from social media to get on with your life. Of course, Minaj’s absence from social media didn’t last very long. In fact, she spent less time off twitter than most people do on vacation, so it was a short lived moment for her. She was back. However, we did learn that sometimes you can step away. You’ll be back, and that’s the real lesson.
“Shutting down TIMES SQUARE,”
Nicki Minaj spent some time in Times Square and she felt she could shut it down, when in reality all she wanted to do was make it even busier than it already is. It’s one of the busiest tourist attractions in New York City, and it never fails to amaze anyone that people actually come to this area of the city to watch concerts knowing that they’re not getting out anytime soon. The lesson here is that if you play in Times Square, you will shut down all forms of traffic and life that there is in the area.
“Have some respect for your guests,”
She’s addressing this to other singers who go on stage and perform for their fans, but the rest of us can take a lesson from this tweet as well. There are plenty of people who could learn to be a little nicer to their guests, and that’s something that we all had to learn at some point. You have to have respect for people when they’re in your house, when you’re in theirs, and at all times. You might not like someone, but respect is necessary no matter what the situation.
“Keep the noise down, I’m trying to sleep,”
We don’t know what she’s talking about as it pertains to her personal life, but we do know that sometimes you just need a little peace and quiet so you can get a little rest. We all need it. We all know what it’s like. Rest is something we don’t get enough of, but we need it. We need to keep the noise down so we can sleep. Whether it’s the noise in our own heads, the noise in our hearts, the noise of the people who don’t like us; we need to keep it down and let it go.
“So y’all want bags under my eyes?”
This is a good one with a lesson, even if it doesn’t appear to be a lesson at first glance. Here is what we have learned from this tweet. People don’t like to see photo shopped photos of celebrities, but no one wants to purchase a pic of a celeb that has bags under the eyes, bad skin and all that other stuff – it’s just not pretty. So while the normal people give the celebrities a hard time about having photo shop, they’re all off trying to do the same thing with photo apps and makeup designed to make them appear better looking. We want celebs to look normal, but we want to look like celebs. Seems like a double standard to me.
Images via Getty
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