Nicki Minaj accomplishments in hip hop over the last decade cannot go unnoticed, but is she the reason why female rappers are popping again.
Since breaking onto the rap scene in 2009, Nicki Minaj has dominated female rap and even won over some of the big boys in the game with whom she has collaborated with over the years including JAY-Z, Eminem, Kanye West, and Lil Wayne. At one point, she was the most heavily featured artist in the game, with every rapper on the planet wanting a verse from her. That demand for her service lead her to dominate the Billboard Hot 100 chart and now she is the female artist with the most entries on that chart in history after surpassing the great Aretha Franklin.
Achievements like those would take a lot of artists their entire career to get, but it took her a little less than a decade after Lil Wayne took a chance with her in the late 2000s after watching her rap on a DVD. During her recently cover story in XXL, Nicki Minaj opened up about her impact on hip hop culture over the years and what she said a lot of her fans will agree with her. She is among several other rappers featured on the Magazine’s 20th anniversary issue.
“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,” she said. “There wasn’t a big female rap presence right before I got in. So, my role was reintroducing the female rapper to pop culture. 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.”
Nicki Minaj is currently working on her new album which she hope will spawn her first Billboard Hot 100 number one hit and perhaps win her that long overdue Grammy award. Some fans will see her statement as a shot at Cardi B, but clearly she is speaking on female rap in general.
