Opinions are like cell phones, everybody has one, but when it comes to beef in hip-hop music you can’t help but chime in. Amongst the many reactions to the on-going Lil Kim/Nicki Minaj drama, the most telling are those from her peers. In several recent interviews Jadakiss, Lil Cease, Missy Elliot, 50 Cent and many other artists (notably other female MCS) have given their thoughts on Lil Kim’s attacks and whether they are justified. Who’s side did they take? Read on.
Jadakiss: “I think it’s kinda corny,” Jada told radio personality Jenny Boom Boom. “I can’t knock Kim for saying whatever she wants to
say about Nicki but you could have been said it?Don’t wait until she gets scorching hot to try to go at her. She’s been copying her since
she came in with the big crotch photos shoots so if you want to just say something, you had to [say something] when she came out.?
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Lil Cease: “You can’t knock [Kim] for that. But the paying homage thing, when I seen Nicki Minaj with the green hair, when I seen her do
similar pictures that Kim has done, I look at that as paying homage, Cease reasoned. “I saw other things where Nicki did pay homage; she
said some [complimentary] things about Lil’ Kim. But we don’t know what’s going on. We don?t read between the lines like MCs do. Kim
probably sees or hears things none of us probably sees or hears. She’s just making her judgment from what she’s seeing. We can’t knock her
for that. At the end of the day, Nicki is Nicki. She’s building her own lane. She’s doing what she’s gotta do. She’s hot, she’s sexy. I’m sure she’s
got some things from Kim, but [Nicki’s] setting her own lane?
Trina: “That’s crazy. I really don’t get it. I don’t see where all this is coming from[We’re] all ladies. Can’t we just make music and
get our paper and keep it moving?! We all respect Kim. She opened the doors for us females. It’s all good, everybody’s eating, what’s the
issue? This makes us all look bad. There’s barely any female artists as is. We don’t need this!”
50 Cent: “I think it’s other things irritating Kim outside of Nicki Minaj, just having momentum of new artists doesn’t offend artists that
have established themselves long before that,” Fif said in an interview with radio personality Lady La. “It’s obvious that she was
inspired by some of Kim’s [rhymes], but that’s not bad. And it’s not a whole lot of female artists that you can make reference to so you’ll
see those little influences even stronger and I think she’s hot, she’s got a good little thing going on right now as far as Nicki Minaj is
concerned.”
Fat Joe: “I think she’s super dope,” Joey Crack said about Minaj. “Ithink she’s sexy, she’s doing her thing. She’s killing them, fly
fashion, she’s got it all, you know what I’m saying? It’s like, sky’s the limit. Yeah, Nicki Minaj needs to pay homage, she needs to say,
‘Yo, Kim is dope.’ What’s wrong with that? ‘Yo, Kim is dope, she’s the sh*t.’ I’m a fan, I’ve been in the game for f*cking 17 years and I
still say KRS-One is my idol. I still say LL Cool J is my idol. It’s nothing wrong with saying ‘Yo, Kim is the sh*t.’ Everybody knows that
Lil Kim is the sh*t. She’s a real b*tch, a living legend, down with Notorious B.I.G., why wouldn’t she big her up?”
Ja Rule: “I thought Nicki was paying homage,” Rule explained to DJ Vlad. “I never heard Nicki say nothing disrespectful about Kim. As a
matter of fact, in interviews I thought I heard Nicki say she likes Kim — for me, having been in possibly the biggest beef in hip-hop, I
think hip-hop beefs are wack because the beef I was in, n*ggas act like I didn’t battle back, I didn’t make rap battles, nah, y’all
motherf*ckers didn’t want to hear my raps back at 50 [Cent] or y’all didn’t want to hear what I had to say about 50 because he was the new
hot artist at the time — everybody rode on that wave which I understand…I think it’s silly for Nicki and Kim to be arguing. I
think they could be making hot records together because it’s obvious that Nicki likes Kim, she did the same pose, like, that pose is so
obvious Kim. Nobody can mistake that for being you, that can only be said as paying homage. It’s not like she tried to steal that from you.
It can’t, that was your sh*t.”
Rah Digga: “My advice to Kim is just make her music,” Digga told MTV News. “My advice to everybody is just do you: Make your music, don’t
pay attention to what’s going on around you, just do what you do best and let the fans blog it out.”
Missy Elliott: “I like Nicki Minaj’s music. I think she’s hot!!” Missy relayed to MTV News via e-mail, adding, “I’ve been a fan of Lil Kim
from the beginning and always will be. Kim is a rap icon!”
Diamond: “I just feel like people that have paved the way for you, you have to show them some type of homage or some type of respect, to a
certain extent,” Diamond told MTV News. “That doesn’t mean that you have to go around and carry [their] bags. At some certain point you
just have to kinda acknowledge the people that paved the way for making things possible for you. I favor Eve more than everybody, but
that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna shout out Kim in an interview or Foxy [Brown] I might like something that she did or Da Brat or Missy.
Those women paved the way for us, so it would be kinda weird not to show them some type of attention or expression, just to let them know,
‘Hey, I appreciate what you’ve done for me.’ ”
