--- title: Nicki Minaj: Chopping a Banana in 'Anaconda' Was About Female Control description: Hint: feminism. But she's not saying any more about it. canonical: https://time.com/3529881/nicki-minaj-anaconda-banana-video/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-21T22:47:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:11.522Z og:title: Nicki Minaj: Chopping a Banana in 'Anaconda' Was About Female Control og:description: Hint: feminism. But she's not saying any more about it. og:url: https://time.com/3529881/nicki-minaj-anaconda-banana-video/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44490d0d6f75ced5/6987622b0b72e387ef6db31b/nicki-minaj.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 2014 MTV Video Music Awards - Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Nicki Minaj: Chopping a Banana in 'Anaconda' Was About Female Control twitter:description: Hint: feminism. But she's not saying any more about it. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44490d0d6f75ced5/6987622b0b72e387ef6db31b/nicki-minaj.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's Why Nicki Minaj is Chopping a Banana in the 'Anaconda' Video  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Oct 21, 2014 10:47 PM UTC  Recording artist Nicki Minaj attends the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards at The Forum on August 24, 2014 in Inglewood, Ca. Recording artist Nicki Minaj attends the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards at The Forum on August 24, 2014 in Inglewood, Ca.Frazer Harrison—Getty Images  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Oct 21, 2014 10:47 PM UTC Apparently, the banana featured in the kitchen portion of Nicki Minaj’s video for the song “Anaconda” is no coincidence. The sexy nature of the video inspired a thousand opinion pieces when it debuted in August and has since racked up more than 200 million views. And now, in a new interview, the singer addresses some of the symbolism, or lack thereof in her performance. The rapper told [GQ ](http://www.gq.com/entertainment/celebrities/201411/nicki-minaj?currentPage=2)writer that she intentionally included the banana as a symbol of female empowerment: --- > “” --- But that’s about the only explicit gender comment Minaj says she makes in the video. Apparently, the singer fell asleep four times over the course of the interview, and didn’t give writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner very much to work with. Aside from the banana moment, she repeatedly denied any overt gender politics in any of her work. Brodesser-Akner writes: --- > “” --- Shrug. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3529881/nicki-minaj-anaconda-banana-video/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3529881/nicki-minaj-anaconda-banana-video/"},"headline":"Here's Why Nicki Minaj is Chopping a Banana in the 'Anaconda' Video","datePublished":"2014-10-21T22:47:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:11.522Z","description":"Hint: feminism. But she's not saying any more about it.","url":"https://time.com/3529881/nicki-minaj-anaconda-banana-video/","keywords":["Living","Music","rap","Drake","Nicki Minaj"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44490d0d6f75ced5/6987622b0b72e387ef6db31b/nicki-minaj.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44490d0d6f75ced5/6987622b0b72e387ef6db31b/nicki-minaj.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2014 MTV Video Music Awards - Arrivals","caption":"2014 MTV Video Music Awards - Arrivals","creditText":"Frazer Harrison—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3529881/nicki-minaj-anaconda-banana-video/","name":"Here's Why Nicki Minaj is Chopping a Banana in the 'Anaconda' Video"}}]}] ```