Nicki Minaj believes she "reintroduced" successful female rappers into the music industry.
Nicki Minaj (c) Instagram
The 34-year-old rapper has taken to social media to clarify the comment made in a recent interview on 'XXL' - where she credited herself for making "female rappers mainstream" - and she has revealed what she meant was she played a part in encouraging women to make rap music again, and compete with their male rivals, because she felt there was a "drought" of successful female rap albums when she started her music career.
In a length [post shared on her Instagram account, the 'Anaconda' hitmaker - who made her breakthrough with the release of her debut album 'Massive Attack' in 2010 - said: "I see ppl remixing my words so let me post "exactly" what I said for the intelligent ones in the back. Now, if you can find the part where I said "I made female rappers mainstream", I'll give you $100,000.00.
"Imagine me saying I made female rappers mainstream when there were so many women who already had platinum albums under their belts
"now what I DID say is right here for anyone w/their own brain to decipher words on their own. I know it's hard in the social media band wagon era, but try. It's fun.
"When I came out, there had been a drought of a few years where NO female rap album had gone platinum, females weren't getting budgets, the industry did NOT believe in the female rapper anymore. They had stopped generating MONEY for labels. Ask any rap historian or just anyone with a brain. These are facts and nothing but the facts.
"So I 'REINTRODUCED' the 'successful' female rapper back to POP CULTURE. Showed big business we were major players in the game just like the boys were. love you guys for holding me down but what's true is true & whats not is just simply not. (sic)."
And the artist - whose real name is Onika Tanya Maraj - has hailed Lauryn Hill, Eve, and Queen Latifah for breaking boundaries in the entertainment industry and for inspiring budding artists like her.
Nicki continued: "Lauryn sold 10 million off one album, Eve had platinum singles w/Alicia, Gwen Stefani, her own tv show & clothing line. It doesn't get more mainstream/pop than Missy's biggest singles. Foxy&Kim had platinum albums & shaped the sound of NY female rappers, Latifah had her own sitcom, Trina was on billboard with hits, etc- I appreciate the love but I never said that. (sic)."
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