Nicki uses her Twitter account to get some thoughts off.
This past Sunday, the BET Awards featured a lot of great, inspiring performances, but the annual event didn’t come and go without a touch of controversy. Nicki Minaj‘s acceptance speech, which she delivered after winning her 5th consecutive Best Female Hip-Hop Artist award, was the topic of conversation long after the awards went off, after her subliminal shots at women who don’t write their own lyrics–a shot that was perceived by everyone to be sent from Minaj to Iggy Azalea, whose single, “Fancy”, is currently the #1 song in the country–caused a frenzied conversation on social media.
Nicki maintains that she doesn’t have any beef at all with Iggy Azalea, and as per her Twitter rant, she has publicly congratulated Iggy on her success concerning “Fancy”, but she will still advocate for female lyrics writing their own songs, and using their own thoughts and perspectives in their verses, much like Missy Elliott and Lauryn Hill did, two people Nicki calls by name in her tweets.
While she’s supporting Azalea’s endeavors, her following tweet still indicates that it may very well have been Iggy Azalea who inspired her speech at the BET Awards, because Nicki mentions that her support of “Fancy” doesn’t take away from the fact that she’s still a firm believer in self-penned lyrics, as if common sense would suggest that logically, one couldn’t be an advocate for both. You can read for yourself below, and read the transcript from Nicki’s BET Awards speech here.
The media puts words in my mouth all the time and this is no different. I will always take a stance on women writing b/c I believe in us! I believe we’re smart enough to write down our own thoughts and perspective, just like the men do. I’ve been saying this for 5 years. I fell in love with Lauryn Hill b/c I knew she was the author behind those amazingly profound articulated songs on the MisEducation. I wondered how Lauryn tapped into my brain and wrote an album on love, betrayal, passion, pain, triumph, brokenness…Did she read minds? It’s the same reason I have a different level of respect for Missy. I know she’s a writer and a producer. Women MUST aspire for more. I’ve congratulated Iggy on the success of Fancy, publicly. She should be very proud of that. All the women nominated should b proud. That will never change my desire to motivate women to write. Our voices have to be heard. I hope I inspire up & coming females to do that.
