It was the shade heard round the world. The highlight of this year’s BET awards was unarguably the not-so-subtle jab Nicki Minaj threw at up-and-coming rapper Iggy Azalea. “What I want the world to know about Nicki Minaj is when you hear Nicki Minaj spit, Nicki Minaj wrote it,” the Young Money rapper said. Since Iggy hit the scene, the two rappers have pretty much stayed out of each other’s way, save for Nicki half-heartedly congratulating the Australia native on her new-found success during a “Breakfast Club” interview. (Iggy is having a banner year as her single “Fancy” is charting at number one). We know little about the origin of this female rapper beef, but a Twitter fan with lots of time on their hands dug up an old tweet from Iggy’s pre-fame days, stating that she didn’t believe Nicki rapped live at the 2010 BET Awards. This apparently got under Nicki’s skin — so she decided to let Iggy have it.
What I seem to keep asking myself is: Haven’t we been here before? Haven’t we lived through the Lil’ Kim vs. Foxy Brown, Lil’ Kim vs. Remy Ma, Nicki vs. Kim, lather-rinse-repeat cycle over and over? The unnecessary dart thrown at Iggy was not only petty on Nicki’s part, but also a missed opportunity. This is the first time in a while that two successful and talented female rappers have been relevant at the same time. There was no long-standing beef or bad blood, that we know of, preventing these powerhouse figures from collaborating and writing new rules for female rappers. Nicki Minaj, as she loves to claim, has paved the way for women in hip-hop, and an immature tweet from a then-20 year old can do nothing to compromise that. So why stir the pot when there’s nothing in it?
Hip-hop has a history of being a hot bed for misogyny and is arguably the least progressive genre of music in creating equal lanes for female artists to succeed. I’d really like to know who is behind the scenes, pulling the strings, perpetuating the message that in order for a female rapper to be successful, she has to be voluptuous, scantily-clad, and most importantly catty. Why should the formula for landing on the charts include hatred and tearing other women down – as if the music industry doesn’t already do a good enough job of that?
Women in rap today have a hard enough time earning respect in the game, and judging by Sunday night’s antics it should be no wonder why. Every standout female rapper of the moment is tasked with clawing to keep the competition out of their territory, yet in the same breath raps about being belittled by record executives in the boardroom. It just doesn’t add up. Nicki’s onstage diss was the most talked about moment of the night, which says a lot about the fans’ hunger for negativity and pitting their “faves” against each other. As long as we support the notion that there can’t ever be two of us, there will never be more of us calling the shots.
Think back to positive female rap collaborations like “Not Tonight (Ladies Night Remix)” and “Ladies First.” Those songs were upbeat and celebratory. Angie Martinez, Left Eye, Lil’ Kim, Da Brat, Missy Elliott, MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, and Monie Love were all successful in their own right and had no issues bringing their creative forces together. That means it can be done. No, um … shade, but I’d be more excited to see Nicki Minaj, Iggy Azalea, Azealia Banks, Kim, Foxy, the soon-to-be-released Remy Ma, and Eve come together on a track than read about these petty beefs on my news feed everyday.
Ladies, series question: Can’t we all just get along? The answer is: Yes, we can. Here’s the proof.