Performative Irruptions: Nicki Minaj and Her Use of the Word Epilepsy in “We Go Up.”

• In Event: 30464 - Speculations

Abstract

“I know they sleepin' on me, bitches got epilepsy” --Nicki Minaj, “We Go Up,” 2022

In this paper, we examine the engagement between Nicki Minaj and her critics over her use of “epilepsy” where “narcolepsy” seems the better fit. The primary investigator, Rachel Jack, argues that this is a case of irruption (Welch 2020): a performative, lyrical invasion into a domain structured to exclude Black women as agents. Rachel’s second author, Jorie Hofstra, has brought her training in medical sociology to bear on the project, complicating and challenging Rachel’s points until the paper itself becomes Rachel’s irruption of the received wisdom that “epilepsy” and “narcolepsy” are terms with proper meanings beyond the reach of a rap artist like Minaj.

Content analysis of the critiques of Minaj’s use of “epilepsy” reveals little if any concern with possibilities of diagnostic confusion or aggravated stigma threat for people with either epilepsy or narcolepsy. Rather, critics expressed concern with whether Minaj has a right to appropriate the word epilepsy. This echoed earlier criticism of the propriety of Minaj making hyperspecific sports references in “Chun Swae” for the sake of a rhyme. Whether Minaj intended to choose “epilepsy” or “narcolepsy” for the song, she enacted a linguistic irruption when she resisted her critics’ insistence that she change the lyric for medical accuracy.

The authors situate their findings in the context of the raced and classed history of hip-hop culture, Welch’s concept of Black geographies, and the exclusionary and abusive ways that medicine as a profession and an institution has imposed itself upon Black people.

Authors

• Rachel Leah Jack, Princeton University

• Jorie Hofstra, Princeton University