Sometimes, rap lyrics are clear. Other times they’re just oblique disses drawing from zeitgeist. Many times they’re persona pieces, a metafictional voice that is easily conflated with the actual identity of the MC who spits them. But I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this: NICKI MINAJ IS NOT ENDORSING MITT ROMNEY.

Speculation around the great watercooler that is the internets are drawing this leap of conclusion from a line Minaj’s verse on Lil Wayne’s latest mixtape, Dedication 4, where she says,”I’m a Republican voting for Mitt Romney/You lazy bitches is f*cking up the economy.” The line falls in the category of oblique diss in my view (cringeworthy), not a patent endorsement of ...