Nikki D Explains Ice Spice Critique, Says She's "Not The Girl She Remembers"

BYGabriel Bras Nevares1.6K Views
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Gumbo Presents Midnight Brunch To Kickoff Rolling Loud
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 28: Nikki D attends Gumbo Presents Midnight Brunch To Kickoff Rolling Loud at Ainsworth Chelsea on October 28, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage/Getty Images)
The pioneering femcee spoke on people not taking criticism these days, female expression in hip-hop, and a whole lot more.

Nikki D is a pioneer for femcees: she was Def Jam's first female signee and was among the first rap stars of her class during the late 1980s and early 1990s. As such, it's no surprise that she has a couple of words of advice and potential hot takes on the new generation. Moreover, fans recently engaged in a lot of heated discussion over the 55-year-old's comments on Ice Spice. Specifically, they relate to her recent Betty Boop performance, which she posited as an example of a "prostitution era" in hip-hop. Nikki believes we're currently in that phase, and in an exclusive interview with AllHipHop- of which they have an excerpt available on this topic- she explained why her comments aren't as combative as they seem.

"When I call it the prostitution era, it’s simply what I saw with the [Ice Spice] performance, right?' Nikki D began. "I was home chilling sipping on some wine, I saw the the video online and I said "What is this?" Shorty’s dress was literally above her butt. And I was like nothing was out but skin-a**, like this is not the girl that I remember. I felt like she had kind of pushed herself into a place of no return. Now when you out there it’s like walking outside, butt-necked, what else do we have?"

Nikki D Comments On Ice Spice, Megan Thee Stallion & More: Watch Interview Clip

"Well, first thing they say is- and I always like to preference my own self with this when y’all come for me- I know I’m old," Nikki D continued. "I know I had one big record, I know they don’t do it the way I used to do it anymore. Go ahead. I know all that so again, I just go back to y’all getting butt hurt. Y’all don’t know how to really take a punch or criticism. I tell you what, you would be so lucky to get the age that I am and you would be so lucky to get royalty checks that I got just two weeks ago in the mail 30 years later from that one song. You would be so lucky to see all those things years later, you feel me? Because what I did was timeless. I didn’t do trendy, I did classic."

"There was a balance," she concluded. "That’s the problem. so you take this generation now, what’s the balance of of this? Where’s the Lauryn Hills, where’s the MC Lytes? It was inappropriate [then], even though it was happening. Hence the reason why it never hit the forefront. They weren’t major acts. It wasn’t anything we as a people or we as a culture was celebrating... For me, it’s the manufactured Black woman. So when we have this idea of what the Black woman is today, we just look at the images we see. Now, do we need to see Michelle Obama [exclusively]? No! But we need balance and we don’t have it." Check out more of the interview snippet, the full version of which is coming soon, in the "Via" link down below. Also, log back into HNHH for more news and updates on Nikki D and Ice Spice.

About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a staff writer for HotNewHipHop. He joined HNHH while completing his B.A. in Journalism & Mass Communication at The George Washington University in the summer of 2022. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Gabriel treasures the crossover between his native reggaetón and hip-hop news coverage, such as his review for Bad Bunny’s hometown concert in 2024. But more specifically, he digs for the deeper side of hip-hop conversations, whether that’s the “death” of the genre in 2023, the lyrical and parasocial intricacies of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, or the many moving parts of the Young Thug and YSL RICO case. Beyond engaging and breaking news coverage, Gabriel makes the most out of his concert obsessions, reviewing and recapping festivals like Rolling Loud Miami and Camp Flog Gnaw. He’s also developed a strong editorial voice through album reviews, think-pieces, and interviews with some of the genre’s brightest upstarts and most enduring obscured gems like Homeboy Sandman, Bktherula, Bas, and Devin Malik.
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