In true Alafiyah fashion, I knew that my first review for Close-Up Culture had to be about something I obsessively love… for me, that is Nicki Minaj. If you know me, you wouldn’t be surprised.
I like to introduce myself as a Barb, a proud one at that. For that reason, I have amassed a short list of movies Nicki Minaj should have been cast in… and why wasn’t she?!
1. Barbie (2023)
The most obvious is Greta Gerwig’s highly-anticipated Barbie. Of course, it was a given that Nicki was going to featured on the soundtrack – how could they not have her? She has been singing about Barbie her whole career, she’s THE ultimate black Barbie, we are called the Barbz. Barbie and pink are her brand. As much as I love the Barbie movie, I was gob-smacked and disappointed that she was not cast or even had a small, but expensive, cameo, in it. Maybe she got offered it but turned it down? I also just need to see America Ferrera and Nicki Minaj together in something, for my childhood self, because I grew up watching one and listening to the other.
On a positive note, the Barbie soundtrack is one of the best – it’s so fun, lively, diverse in music genre and star-studded, and, unsurprisingly, Nicki had the best song on the album – Barbie World, featuring Ice Spice and the original vocals from Aqua. There is a reason as to why that song has made it second year on my Spotify Wrapped Top 5 Songs. To quote America Ferrera about Nicki’s Barbie World “Her track on this album is unbelievable.
How could you take a track that already was engrained in peoples’ minds as one thing, and just make it the most amazing thing we need for this movie, for this moment?” The whole Barbie cast nailed their performances, and, Greta Gerwig, please do your thing for Barbie 2, and cast the Queen Barb, herself, as rapper / musician Barbie.
2. The Interview (2014)
I pressed play (no Nicki Minaj pun intended) on The Interview expecting Nicki Minaj to be in the movie (because a colleague said she was!). Every minute of the movie, whilst enjoying it, I was still thinking “where is Nicki?” or “Nicki will be in the next scene for sure!” . Let me provide some context… The Interview is about Dave Skylark (James Franco) and his producer Aaron Rapaport (Seth Rogan) who run a popular celebrity late-night talk show, named Skylark Tonight. They get the chance to interview Kim-Jong-un, and are recruited by the CIA to assassinate the notorious dictator. And in the movie, for the talk show, they have a few celebrity appearances, such as; Eminem and Seth Meyers. Nicki Minaj, amongst many others, was mentioned in the title card of the fake late night-show.
On YouTube, there is a clip of James Franco’s character interviewing Nicki about her hit song that came out that year – Anaconda – on the set of Skylark Tonight – but I guess that was just an MTV Special TV short. To quickly digress, all of that was very smart promotion from MTV and the producers of The Interview, promoting both the release of the movie that year, Nicki’s new song at the time, Anaconda, and promoting her upcoming MTV VMA’s performance of Anaconda the same year.
After all that, why did you think I thought Nicki was in the movie? From the TV short alone, her acting was very believable and next time… don’t put her in the title card of the fake talk show if she’s not going to actually be featured in the movie!
3. Night School (2018)
This movie certainly deserves a re-watch from me because from what I remember, it was just pure joy and laughs. Teddy (Kevin Hart), a high school dropout, is forced to attend a night school in order to get his GED, after he accidentally blows up his place of employment. Kevin Hart’s character is pitted against feisty night school teacher, Carrie (Tiffany Haddish), who he tries to prove he’s not as dim-witted as she thinks, whilst he’s amongst chaos with his new group of night school classmates (Romany Malco, Rob Riggle, Taran Killam, Anne Winters, Mary Lynn Rajskub).
In this movie, you already have two comedians battling side-by-side. Hart’s and Haddish’s comedic chemistry work well with each other and you can tell that outside of the Night School world, they have a genuine relationship (in fact, they go way back). Now, despite Nicki Minaj not having any correlation with this movie, unlike the other two above), she is naturally and unintentionally so funny. She’s not shy to being in a comedy movie herself – from Barbershop: The Next Cut to The Other Woman – she will make you laugh, which is why she would’ve been the perfect addition for this movie. Nicki Minaj, Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish would’ve been such a hilarious and dynamic trio together, and this is the type of fun production I can certainly see fitting her personality.
I loved seeing Tiffany Haddish playing the role as the teacher, I don’t think she needs to be replaced, but Nicki Minaj playing a wanna-be-rapper student, where she’s disturbing the class by always bursting out into raps about what the teacher is saying… just sounds fitting, no?
This is a realistic list especially since she has had multiple interactions with the talent from these movies. I will be back in the future for a part 2.