Channelling Nicki Minaj is no easy feat. But the US artist Tschabalala Self was up for the task, creating a fetching image of the feisty rapper for the digital cover of the December issue of US Vogue. But it was not all plain sailing.Vogue says that “when we asked Tschabalala to do a portrait of Nicki for Vogue’s December digital cover—using photographer Norman Jean Roy’s cover shoot [of the print edition] as a starting point—she was surprised and electrified by the idea, and maybe just a tad concerned about the Barbz, Nicki’s idolising and hyper-vocal fan base, whose members are ready to do battle with whatever anyone says about her.” But Self was not phased. “I love Nicki Minaj. She is my favourite rapper. I am a Barb, so I was pretty thrilled to be asked,” she said. In the eight years since she graduated with an MFA from the Yale School of Art, Self has enjoyed meteoric success with her distinctive works depicting black and predominantly female figures in a blend of printmaking, painting and collaged fabric. In a 2020 interview, she told us: “I’m curious to know how little information is needed for one’s body to register as being gendered and racialised—is it as simple as a silhouette of a heel, a thick thigh, a protruding butt?”
