ANACONDA MUSIC VIDEO SERIES

It all reminds me of (albeit a much more frantically paced version of) RihannaвЂ™s video for вЂњPour It Up,вЂќ and also this smart analysisВ of it at the Hairpin, in which three female writers discussed the strange provocation of the вЂњdude-freeвЂќ strip club where the video takes place. вЂњAnacondaвЂќ fades out on a shot of him looking like a chastised (and/or blue-balled) schoolboy sitting in the corner. The primary message of the scene is pretty obvious (вЂњOH MY GOD, LOOK AT HER BUTTвЂќ), but it also seems intent on making Drizzy look a little ridiculous. She plays this whole narrative out in miniature in the last part of вЂњAnaconda,вЂќ in which she gives her Twitter husband Drake a lap dance - that ends in a quick slap when he crosses the line and tries to touch her. These videos enact a certain bait-and-switch violence toward the viewer who has the audacity to think Nicki is shaking her ass for him they draw you in with their neon-bright, sexually charged imagery, and then they suddenly, unexpectedly turn confrontational. Plenty of people - prominent among them, Nicki Minaj - are happy to talk about Nicki MinajвЂ™s ass, but fewer want to confront a certain sense of unease that she creates in her most provocative videos, like the stark, black-and-white clip for the 2014 single вЂњLookinвЂ™ AssвЂќ (in which she quite literally guns down the male viewer) or her great 2012 collaboration with Cassie, вЂњThe BoysвЂќ (which plays out like a candy-store-hued pop-art Thelma & Louise). At one point she eyes the camera seductively like sheвЂ™s about to eat a banana, but instead chops it in half and chucks the peel away away with a diabolical smirk.

Instead, itвЂ™s just Nicki and her dancers, going about their day - you know, just making some fruit salad, doing some cardio - in this hallucinatory all-female universe.

ANACONDA MUSIC VIDEO SERIES

The song itself describes - and, arguably, objectifies - a series of male characters, but we donвЂ™t see them in the video. One thing I find striking about the video is the complete lack of men in its surreal, bubblegum-Amazon world (except, of course, for Drake, who IвЂ™ll get to in a minute). IвЂ™m still feeling a little conflicted about it myself, but IвЂ™d definitely push back against that last claim.

(Triumphing over #TimeForATacoBell, and during Fourth Meal, no less!)Д®arly reactions to the video seem only expressible in emoji, though some have dismissed it as pathetic and desperate - pure pandering to the male gaze.

Before she unveiled the long-awaited clip last night, she Instagrammed her pride at the fact that #AnacondaVideoAtMidnight was trending. вЂњAnacondaвЂќ isnвЂ™t one of her best singles, but you get the sense sheвЂ™d be just as happy to see it top BillboardвЂ™s Trending 140 if not the Hot 100. Ever since Minaj unveiled the singleвЂ™s controversial cover art last month, sheвЂ™s been doing everything in her power to help вЂњAnacondaвЂќ become an unavoidable meme: SheвЂ™s gleefully retweeted all the most popular Photoshop jobs ( Marge Simpson in a thong! HannahConda!) and effectively stirred the pot when the conversation revealed a racial double standard. This morning, the internet took a needed break from arguing about Taylor Swift and moved on to chatting about Nicki MinajвЂ™s predictably bonkers вЂњAnacondaвЂќ video - which is to say, MinajвЂ™s cunningly calculated plan for viral world domination is going exactly as planned.

Anaconda music video