Nicki Minaj and Rosenberg: The internal battle between "authentic" and "unauthentic" music
This past weekend New York's Hot 97 radio station held their annual Summer Jam concert in New Jersey (yes there is clearly some irony in throwing a concert for a radio station based in NYC in the neighboring state, but I digress). Entertainer and hip hop star Nicki Minaj, herself a Queens native by way of Trinidad (big ups) was supposed to be the headline act. It was going to be Nicki's first chance at headlining one of the most iconic, (though of late dwindling in national prominence) concerts in her own home town. Hours before Nicki was to take stage with her Young Money label mates, one of the morning radio hosts of Hot 97, Peter Rosenberg, better known as simply Rosenberg, made the commentary that Nicki's music wasn't "real hip hop" (the irony of this white Jewish man questioning the authenticity of a music form created by black and brown youth in the streets of the Bronx in the 1970's isn't lost on this writer, but again I digress). Nicki upon hea