On July 25, the trailer for Netflix’s buzzing documentary Ladies First: A Story of Women in Hip-Hop dropped, but two revered female hip-hop titans were not shown in the jammed pack promo— Missy Elliott and Nicki Minaj.
On Tuesday, fans took to the X app to sound off about the glaring omission. Some fans wondered if the pair were snubbed from the doc due to their absence in the trailer. A few netizens on X were also pissed that the iconic Lauryn Hill, Lil Kim and Foxy Brown were missing from the powerful cast.
According to a Netflix synopsis, the four-part documentary “recontextualizes the irrepressible women of hip-hop and their role in the genre’s 50 years by reinserting them into the canon where they belong: at the center, from day one to present day.” The exciting promo gave fans a peak at the doc’s all-star cast. As seen in the trailer, hip-hop veterans Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Roxanne Shante, Da Brat and West Coast rapper Yo-Yo will make an appearance in the forthcoming doc. Fans will also get to hear from some of the newcomers that have been dominating the rap charts, like Chika, Latto, Saweetie, Coi Leray and rising hip-hop star Tierra Whack.
Attempting to clear the air, podcaster Shawn Allen, who was involved with the project, claimed that Missy and Nicky did not give the documentary permission to license their music for Ladies First.
In response to a Nicki fan who was upset with the doc “excluding” the Queens native, Allen penned, “Nicki didn’t let us license her music and videos.”
When asked if Nicki was going to be included in the documentary, Allen replied, “Yes, but it didn’t make sense bc she didn’t give us any licensing.”
“Her nor Missy,” he added in a follow-up post.
As users continued to flood X with complaints, Allen tried to give more clarity on the omission.
“I think bc Nicki is working on her own doc… I don’t understand why Missy didn’t agree,” he added in a follow-up reply.
Unfortunately, Allen’s explanation wasn’t enough for some of the Barbz. According to the podcaster, some fans of the “Pink Friday” rapper contacted his job to complain about the issue.
He also addressed the Nicki and Missy controversy on his ASAP podcast on July 26.
“Every time I work on a project, especially a documentary, we have to be careful with licensing,” Allen said. “So, we were told to remove all of the Nicki and Missy stuff because we were not granted licensing rights. Not a big deal. We don’t know why. That was just the end of it, right? I don’t know if she’s talked about or not on the doc, but I’m going to assume because it’s a woman in hip-hop dock that they bring up Nicki, ” he added.”I mean, you can’t have women in hip-hop documentaries and not talk about these women.”
Listen to the full podcast below.
Ladies First will premiere on Netflix Aug. 9. Will you be watching?
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