The Rise of Nicki Minaj
As you know, Nicki Minaj is the
dominant female rapper of today, and well she has been, I think since her 1st
album, Pink Friday, came out. The album took me by surprise: it wasn’t just
raw, but very popish as well. This showed her ability to make different kind of
songs, with ease.
This is article is about how did
Nicki become the dominant female force in rap so easily? Well lets rewind
things a bit. Lauryn Hill was regarded as the best female MC…even though her
album was an R&B album….So obviously one has to remember the traditional
female rappers that came before Nicki. Lil Kim, her former arch nemesis, was
the first female MC to really perfect the combination of raw and sexy rhymes. That’s
right I feel Nicki owes a lot to Lil Kim, since she came before her and paved
the way for her.
There have been other female MCs
that have been popular in the late 90s and 2000s. Foxy Brown, Trina, Remy Ma,
and Rah Digga are some. However when I look at who was on TOP OF THE GAME for
the longest time, it would have to be Missy Elliot. Missy was very very
popular. She used the style of Sexy rhymes but instead of raw or hardcore
rhymes, she used pop/dance style songs. So therefore I feel Nicki owes a lot of
her style to Missy Elliot as well, who is the former best female rapper.
Now how did Nicki get to where she
is now? How did she climb to the top. Well that’s easy; no one was up there in
2009-2010. All the other female rappers I
named had fallen off by then. Eve is a prime example. She had 3 succesful
albums, and during a time when there was a lot more competition among female
MCs.
Well as of now there isn’t much
competition for Nicki Minaj. She has good delivery, but her punchlines are a bit
elementary. However I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a female rapper(or any
rapper) combine rap and pop so well. So I predict Nicki will be on top for a while
or until Missy Elliot or Lil Kim come back. However even if they do, they’ll
have to contend with Nicki “Roman” Minaj.
