Ja Rule says that Nicki Minaj's place in hip-hop is "solidified" and that she's responsible for "reopening" the door for a new generation of female rappers. Ja Rule spoke about his position on her impact during an interview with The Shade Room from over the weekend.
“I think Nicki gets proper praise,” he began. “Her place in the game is solidified. It’s solid. There were no female MCs out and about until Nicki came back out. Before her, the last one was like Lauryn Hill."
Ja Rule Performing With Ashanti
From there, he recalled several other female artists from before Minaj's time. "And before her was like Queen Latifah, Salt-N-Pepa, MC Lyte and before her it’s even further back,” he continued. “The female MC — they’re having a run like they’ve never had before. To me, in my opinion, Nicki reopened that door."
Many fans on social media were quick to take issue with Ja Rule's comments. In doing so, they brought up many other legendary female rappers who Ja failed to shout out. "So we just gonna skip over what Lil’ Kim & Foxy did for the culture. These ladies changed the game and it hasn’t been the same since. In terms of impact, Lil’ Kim & Foxy is it. The rest have been duplications,” one person wrote on Instagram. Another added: “Eve deserves her roses if anything because in her prime Eve done so much from music to her own Tv show etc.”
One other fan argued that Nicki gets a lot of praise, but also deals with a large number of haters. "Nicki does get her praise, it’s just people been TRYING her in the past couple years!" they commented. The remarks come after Latto appeared to diss Nicki during her set at Coachella over the weekend. Performing an unreleased song, she rapped, “Bitches acting like they running shit, they really ran through” and “She thought I would kiss her ass, she mustn’t have took her meds.”
Ja Rule Sits Down With The Shade Room
[Via]