Nicki Minaj once claimed she made female rap mainstream again
Queens lyricist Nicki Minaj has had an illustrious career full of twists and turns, but despite the numerous controversies she has been involved in one thing that nobody can deny is the impact she has had on the landscape of hip-hop.
The 1990s saw a flurry of female rappers emerge. Whether it’s Queen Latifah, Lil Kim, Foxy Brown, Missy Elliott, Remy Ma or Trina, the surge saw a decade of quality music from women. However, as the 2000s began to rage on, many of these names faded due to inconsistency and career changes. As such, by 2007, a void was begging to be filled.
As the decade progressed a new face begin to appear, his artist had been grafting since 2004, appeared on multiple mixtapes as a featured artist in New York, and appeared several times on the famous Come Up DVD. This person would catch Lil Wayne’s eye and change the definition of female rap forever. This person was Nicki Minaj.
Nicki had the chance to study the women who had gone before her, see where they had made mistakes, and learn from their failures. As a result, she was the first female rapper in hip-hop to become a mogul. That said, in an interview with XXL for their 20th-anniversary cover story, Minaj once looked at her career, reflected on her achievements and made the bold statement that she made female rap popular again.
In 2017, Minaj broke Aretha Franklin’s previous record for the most Hot 100 hits by a female artist. As such, it was fitting that the interviewer asked what Minaj believed her role in hip-hop had been, considering she was reaching such heights as a rapper.
After briefly thinking about what her role was, Minaj stated, “My role in hip-hop has been super unique because when my first album came out, there had been so much time where there wasn’t a female rap album out that went platinum. There wasn’t a big female rap presence right before I got in. So, my role was reintroducing the female rapper to pop culture.”
She continued, “I don’t think we got that much credit. I think female rappers have always been dope and influential, but I think I sort of came in at a time where big business was paying attention, so I was able to capitalize off of a lot of deals and business ventures.”
Of course, although Minaj was catapulted to fame due to her talent, many figures shaped her and inspired her to become what she is today. Naming some of the stars who showed her true lyricism, Minaj named MCs such as Lil Wayne, Jay Z, Foxy Brown, and Eminem. She also mentioned Nas, Lauryn Hill, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Eazy-E, Slick Rick, and, of course, Biggie and 2Pac.