WENN
Image via WENN
Just last year, Nicki Minaj was deemed the best-selling female rapper of all time. It made sense considering the success of hit singles like “Super Bass,” and the number of popular records she’s been featured on since she put out her first mixtape in 2007. She’s had more endorsements than most and been on more magazine covers than you can count with both hands and toes. She literally was just on the cover of New York Times Magazine, labeled as one of “The Greats.” Whatever you think about her flow, she is pretty much the most successful female rapper to do it.
Still, that hasn’t stopped Minaj from claiming she doesn’t get enough respect or her just dues, specifically from men. She shared her thoughts about that on Twitter on Wednesday.
It all started after a rapper named Russ talked about how she “birthed so many females, not even just in rap, but the look, the whole everything just in women. You gotta really do your research. She’s been that s–t for mad long.” It was enough to get her to speak on the topic of sexism:
Minaj would go on to retweet a tweet from Kendrick Lamar back in 2010 where he called out men for hating on the MC more than anybody else, despite the fact that it was during her early days in the industry that she was releasing some undeniably fire verses.
“Just realized. Moe n—az hate nicki minaj than woman do. #yallniggazisreallypausewhenithinkaboutit.”
And while I would disagree with the idea that she doesn’t get her props (honestly, she’s the only female rapper out now, aside from Cardi B and Remy Ma, whose music even gets played on the radio), and believe she pulls out the s-word when people start comparing her abilities to the new wave of talent, which is common because all artists operate on waves, she makes good points. She’s actually been talking about sexism in hip-hop for quite some time. Take a look:
2010
“You have to be a beast. That’s the only way they respect you. I came up under Wayne and Wayne has his way of doing things. When Wayne walks up on the m—-f—-’ stage and say, ‘Don’t talk to me, have my f—– music ready, get the f— up out of my face, I’mma blow this — in your —– face all day, it’s cool. But every time I put my foot down and stand up for myself, it’s like ‘We’ve heard about Nicki Minaj! Nicki Minaj shut down a photo shoot! Oh my god! No one wants to work with Nicki Minaj!’
I’m glad you heard. Now, when I come to a photoshoot, let it be of quality. You know why? Because I put quality in what I do. I spend time and I spend energy and I spend effort and I spend everything I have, every fiber of my being to give people quality. So if I turn up to a photoshoot and you had–you got a fifty dollar clothes budget and some sliced pickles on the m—-f—- board, you wanna know what? No, I am gonna leave. Is that wrong? For wanting more for myself? Wanting people to treat me with respect? But you know what, next time they know better. But I had accepted the pickle juice, I would be drinking pickle juice right now.
When I am assertive, I’m a b—h. When a man is assertive, he’s a boss.”
2012
“Every woman needs to know that it does not matter what people say about you. After a certain amount of time, when you put in a certain amount of work…you deserve respect.”
2013
“It’s been crazy because most of the program directors for instance on Hip Hop radio are men. And I’ve had conversations with these people like, ‘You know what, I can’t relate to a female rapper. I don’t want to hear my female rapping.’ Cause rap is such a braggadocios…so a lot of guys don’t really want to see a woman like that. And I find with even women, we want to hear a male rapper more than we want to hear a female rapper. It’s crazy, but I don’t think that’s ever going to change.”
2014
“Every woman is multifaceted. Every woman has a switch, whether she’s going to be maternal, whether she’s going to be a man-eater, whether she has to kick a–, whether she has to be one of the boys, whether she has to show the guys that she’s just as smart or smarter, she’s just as talented or creative. Women suppress a lot of their sides.”
2014
“People don’t know how heavily involved I am in my own career. I’m on 15 to 25 conference calls every few days strategizing with my team. I think a lot of artists sit back and have it done for them. Sometimes as women in the industry — if you’re sexy or like doing sexy things — some people subconsciously negate your brain. They think you’re stupid.”
Who could forget when she put a reporter in there place for insinuating she “thrives off drama“? It was around the time she was in the middle, it seemed to some, of the Meek Mill and Drake beef and as well as Lil Wayne and Birdman’s issues over their shared artists. She shut that down.
2015
“That’s disrespectful. Why would a grown-a– woman thrive off drama? What do the four men you just named have to do with me thriving off drama? Why would you even say that? That’s so peculiar. Four grown-a– men are having issues between themselves, and you’re asking me do I thrive off drama?
That’s the typical thing that women do. What did you putting me down right there do for you? Women blame women for things that have nothing to do with them. To put down a woman for something that men do, as if they’re children and I’m responsible, has nothing to do with you asking stupid questions, because you know that’s not just a stupid question. That’s a premeditated thing you just did.”
2015
“You never know how much is too much – too much emotion, too much vulnerability, too much power. Everyone wants me to be something different. Women in the industry are judged more. If you speak up for yourself, you’re a b—h. If you party too much, you’re a whore. Men don’t get called these things.”
2015
People view sexy as weak. If you’re overtly sexy, people don’t expect you to be smart. Sometimes women are dressing sexy for themselves — not necessarily because they want to have sex with some man. Sometimes that’s what makes them feel good and empowered.”
2016
“Nowadays, I feel like [young women] see marrying into money—I think that’s a big thing now. I don’t want that to be a woman’s goal in life. I want your goal in life to be to become an entrepreneur, a rich woman, a career-driven woman. You have to be able to know that you need no man on this planet at all, period, and he should feel that, because when a man feels that you need him, he acts differently.”
2017
“I had so much going against me in the beginning: being black, being a woman, being a female rapper. No matter how many times I get on a track with everyone’s favorite M.C. and hold my own, the culture never seems to want to give me my props as an M.C., as a lyricist, as a writer. I got to prove myself a hundred times, whereas the guys that came in around the same time as I did, they were given the titles so much quicker without anybody second-guessing.”
