Wednesday, February 15, 2012

WTF Wednesday: Roman Zolanski


From http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1679156/nicki-minaj-roman-zolanski-grammys.jhtml:

Nicki Minaj's Alter Ego Roman Zolanski Makes Grammy Debut
Minaj welcomed her favorite alter ego onstage for her eye-popping performance of "Roman Holiday."
By Jocelyn Vena (@jocelyn1212)

Nicki Minaj's wacky alter ego Roman Zolanski made his Grammy debut Sunday night as the MC welcomed him to the stage during her eye-popping performance of "Roman Holiday."

The Brooklyn-bred MC kicked off the buzzed-about spectacle belting out the opening lines of Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded track in a confession booth. After she confesses her sins, a short filmed dubbed "The Exorcism of Roman" played, and when she returned to the stage, she was strapped to a board, surrounded by religious icons, priests, monks and the like.

The theatrical performance was punctuated by the track's thumping beat and soaring rap/sung portions by the always fierce Minaj. As the song began to wrap up, a priest stepped onto the stage and performed an exorcism on the pop star, who had broken free of her shackles during the song. Minaj was elevated off the stage through the power of prayer as the frenetic track closed out.



While Minaj's dedicated Barbs know all about her alter ego, not all Grammy viewers might be familiar with Roman, the subject of her upcoming album release. In the sea of Minaj personas, Roman stands out as the most zany. In fact, he was born from Minaj's own anger, as the myth goes. Roman's appearance on Minaj's tracks is hardly new. He once shared a track with Eminem's own alternate persona, Slim Shady, on the Pink Friday song "Roman's Revenge."

As for why Minaj decided to play up religion during her performance, she once shared that aspects of the album (due out in April) will focus on the rehabilitation of Roman.





16 comments:

Patty is Dead said...

Well since you're all dumbfounded by this particular WTF let Patty babble for a sec about what she thinks is going on, here.

Minaj is alluding to the "Satanic Panic" of the 60's. Roman filmed Rosemary's Baby, and some more superstitious types believed at the time that perhaps he brought Sharon's death upon himself.

Patty thinks this is BS, but the imagery that Minaj is playing with cuts right to the very core of the American pseudo-religious supersitious magical thinking that manifests itself in our every day lives.

Does the exorcism scene at the Grammies remind you of anything? It reminds Patty of "The Cremation of Care" ceremony that the Bushes, Bonesmen, et. al. love to participate in each summer at The Bohemian Grove.

Some people think Minaj is simply copying Madonna, doing what's been done before. Patty thinks her art is a bit more subtle than that. Patty is not necessarily a fan, she just likes to speculate.

What do you think?

eviliz said...

I looove Nicki!

Staceey L. said...

I like Nikki, but that grammy performance was horrible...Give me Paul McCartney singing ANYTHING and I'm happy.

Liz, did you get the pics and email I sent?

eviliz said...

Stacey L. said...
I like Nikki, but that grammy performance was horrible...Give me Paul McCartney singing ANYTHING and I'm happy.

Liz, did you get the pics and email I sent?

nope i did not. i just e-mailed you.

orwhut said...

Blogger Stacey L. said...
Give me Paul McCartney singing ANYTHING and I'm happy.

I have an English friend who's a big Beatles fan but, lately he seems to think that it would take a very large soccer stadium to get hold both Sir Paul and his ego.

orwhut said...

Liz,
What happened to the cool words that we used to type to prove we weren't robots when publishing out comments? They seemed to be related to our subject and I thought you made them up but. Now we have to type some gibberish that's very, very, very, hard to read.

Matt said...

Orwhut, log into your Google account first before trying to comment and it avoids the "human detector" completely.

eviliz said...

orwhut said...
Liz,
What happened to the cool words that we used to type to prove we weren't robots when publishing out comments? They seemed to be related to our subject and I thought you made them up but. Now we have to type some gibberish that's very, very, very, hard to read.

What Matt said.
E-blogger chooses the words not me.
Now I am curious as to what the words were. Maybe "creepy crawl"
"no sense makes sense" LOL

eviliz said...

orwhut said...
Liz,
What happened to the cool words that we used to type to prove we weren't robots when publishing out comments? They seemed to be related to our subject and I thought you made them up but. Now we have to type some gibberish that's very, very, very, hard to read.

What Matt said.
E-blogger chooses the words not me.
Now I am curious as to what the words were. Maybe "creepy crawl"
"no sense makes sense" LOL

orwhut said...

What Matt said.
E-blogger chooses the words not me.
Now I am curious as to what the words were. Maybe "creepy crawl"
"no sense makes sense" LOL


I don't remember any of the actual words so, I'll make a few that are similar. The words were never exact but, suggested things relevant to this blog like. pattilite, murdro, upliz, aetmat, bacsady, deatum, zabisrupo and squekewc. Today, I started getting two words and and the letters on one are distorted so it took me three different attempts to get in a comment. For a long time I'd thought one of you guys made them up. It must have all been in my head. One day I'll tell you about the little green men I see. ;-)

orwhut said...

Matt,
I must be missing something. I am logged in or I wouldn't be able to access this blog and I still have to type the two words to post a comment.

A.C. Fisher Aldag said...

That was easily the most awesome performance that I've seen this year.

The singing wasn't great, and the shock-the-straights act has been done better by such performers as Madonna and Lady Gaga, but overall, the spectacle was utterly riveting. The costumes, the choreography, the symbolism, all of it.

And as an added bonus, it infuriated Catholics worldwide, which makes me supremely happy.

Matt said...

I am Catholic, A.C.

Patty is Dead said...

I thought you were Jewish, Matt...lol

fiona1933 said...

hate that expression 'shared'

Patty is Dead said...

Patty is feeling the need for a little exorcism herself today. She is in Mendocino, trying to find more interesting info for y'all. She has been "playing telephone" all weekend due to a shoddy connection at a tiny little B&B in the middle of nowhere.

Paranoia, they say, will destroy-ya. And, it's true. Patty is a relative novice to blogging about this case, in case you did not know. Her first post ever was Christmas 2010 (she blogged elsewhere on other topics before that) though she has followed the case since the 70s when she was VERY young. Why did Patty join Eviliz instead of some other site? Because in general, Manson Bloggers are not generous to newbies, and because Liz and Matt gave me a chance. Patty loves them, and love in all its forms is always a good thing.

Hate, it seems though, always seems to creep in and threaten the love. Patty being Homo sapiens sapiens is not immune to it and lately she has found herself attacking Lynyrd, Katie, Ole JC, Shawn, and most recently Thelma/Dianne who most certainly do NOT deserve any kind of malice. It's all been knee-jerk on Patty's part, and based on rumor and innuendo.

Mother forgive me, for I have sinned!