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epitome of incomprehensibility
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Super Bass - Nicki Minaj, 2011 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JipHEz53sU)
Meaning: Nicki Minaj prefers Ezra Pound to James Joyce. It's clear from the lyrics - Pound is slicker than the "guy with the thing on his eye," which is Joyce, who in later life wore an eyepatch. Also, she has a thing for American guys; Pound was American while Joyce, of course, was Irish.
Plus, "Super Bass" is a reference to Ezra Pound's theory of the Great Bass, the idea that every song has an ideal tempo based on the interaction of the frequency of the beat with the frequency of the pitch of the notes.
Her "Yes I did, yes I did" is a bit defensive. Minaj defies those who would challenge her for choosing an admitted fascist over a writer who championed tolerance and freedom (huge ego, that JJ, but not really an elitist, IMO). Still, it's clear she's playing a character - a character who LOVES the guy who wrote the Cantos. And just why does Minaj's character obsess over a long-dead American poet? She gives us a clue in the title, though this critic cannot verify its accuracy. While I admit that front-facing images show him as fairly attractive, photographic and literary sources stop short of confirming whether Ezra Pound did, in fact, have a superb ass.
Did Minaj use her Standard Celebrity Time Machine to get up close and personal with the Mussolini-idolizing poet? Did they get hot and heavy in a station of the metro, protected by Pound's mystical acorn of light? Hugh Kenner never mentions any such thing in The Pound Era. Perhaps the answer we are seeking lies in her 2012 song "Pound the Alarm."
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