The recent war of words delivered by Lil Kim against Nicki Minaj has rifled amongst a good few Hip Hop artists around, all of a sudden everyone has their thoughts on who’s in the right, why so and so is said. Generally though, this is nothing new in the Hip Hop world, from Jay-Z and Nas’ years-long cold war, to 50 Cent just angry at anyone, the war of words are always there building heat. When it comes to female rappers however its seen as a little more complicated, as females have to contend as it is with a lack of female artists in the genre the pressure is on to not only have an image, but to be able to compete at the top with lyrical insanity. So when it comes to the recent battle between Lil Kim and Nicki Minaj (which Nicki hasn’t said anything back yet but you know she will at the worst time, just watch) the ladies of hip hop suggest solidarity should overcome ego when women take the mic.

Speaking to MTV News via email, Trina gave her thoughts by saying: “That’s crazy. I really don’t get it. I don’t see where all this is coming from, we’re all ladies. Can’t we just make music and get our paper and keep it moving?! We all respect Kim. She opened the doors for us females. It’s all good — everybody’s eating, what’s the issue?”
Regards to the dearth of high profile women in the Hip Hop business Trina turns to situations as such as a reason why. “This makes us all look bad. There’s barely any female artists as is — we don’t need this!”
Talking of her experience of breaking in, Trina mentions it was a difficult deal to break into, saying “”It’s a male-dominated game, so the bulk of attention is focused on them,” she said. “As a female you are constantly fighting to prove yourself and stay fighting to hold your spot amongst these dudes.”

Rah Digga, a veteran MC, also weighed in her opinion, stating that for women in hip-hop, trading jabs isn’t in anyone’s best interests. “My advice to Kim is just make her music, my advice to everybody is just do you: Make your music, don’t pay attention to what’s going on around you, just do what you do best and let the fans blog it out.”

Another long time female MC Missy Elliot believes both talents have room to make it big. She supports both artist, saying: “I like Nicki Minaj’s music. I think she’s hot!! I’ve been a fan of Lil Kim from the beginning and always will be. Kim is a rap icon!”

As always, respect is key, and Southern star Diamond, who first appeared on the scene with Crime Mob before going solo, maintains that it’s important to acknowledge the old guard when first starting out. Something which Kim is sort of demanding respect for, saying Nicki Minaj replicates her.
“I just feel like people that have paved the way for you, you have to show them some type of homage or some type of respect, to a certain extent,” Diamond told MTV News. “That doesn’t mean that you have to go around and carry [their] bags. At some certain point you just have to kinda acknowledge the people that paved the way for making things possible for you. I favor Eve more than everybody, but that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna shout out Kim in an interview or Foxy [Brown] — I might like something that she did — or Da Brat or Missy. Those women paved the way for us, so it would be kinda weird not to show them some type of attention or expression, just to let them know, ‘Hey, I appreciate what you’ve done for me.’ ”
Taking it a step further when talking about how it is like for female artists to break into the Hip Hop scene, Diamond goes on comparing the situation to sexual politics in work environments. She says: “It’s [the same as] anything in society: You can be having a 9-to-5 and you can have a boss that’s over you that’s a male, and you can be doing better than what he’s supposed to do and you could get recognition from his boss and he might feel intimidated a certain kind of way,” she said. “Men are just so caught up in being dominating, being a man, wearing the pants and just being in control. For a woman to come in and do the same thing that a man has done or that a man is doing, that’s when it becomes little problems here and there.”

Even though the “femcees” stress strongly that the small number of female MCs in the game makes unity even more important, The likes of Trina, Rah Digga, Kim and Minaj have aligned with male stars like Trick Daddy, Busta Rhymes, Notorious B.I.G. and Lil Wayne when they first hit the scene (Elliott’s long association with Timbaland was more of a partnership; Lauryn Hill broke in with the Fugees). Not all female MCs however found that their gender was a problem when proving themselves in the game. Digga found that her talent eased her experience when she was first making her mark in hip-hop.

Rah Digga says: “I traveled the Lyricist Lounge circuit real heavy [before she received mainstream success], so I always was critically acclaimed for being an MC. So I think once I got with Busta Rhymes it was like, ‘OK, now we get to hear her live and direct on an album.’ I already had the rapport of being a strong MC from the beginning. Once I got with the crew I was just basically able to stand out and shine. It was a real good experience for me.”

And whilst there’s been for years a scarce scene of Female artists in the genre, the recent upsurge has got the likes of Diamond excited, quoted saying: “The fact that females in hip-hop are coming back is good, because a lot of the times men speak for women and men can’t really cover every subject and topic that a woman would speak on. I feel like, for some reason, people feel like [there] only has to be one female. Everybody has their own lane. Just like there’s different dudes for us to choose between and different genres of music it should be the same for female MCs.”

This spat betwen Kim and Minaj is surely not the first time two stars gave war of words, and certainly won’t be the last. Though I believe that yes Minaj is blatantly another Lil Kim, just more irritating plus fairly stereotypical and unoriginal in that case, I would say the best way to respond to things as such, is 100% simple to what Rah Digga says: “to command respect is to make music.”

Leave us your thoughts – Team Kim or Team Minaj? Team “Who gives a shit and make music” if that is the case? Do you think also, especially if you’re a female, beef such as this is a reason for a shortage of female MCs or would you expect it only to bring up more in the game?