S. Samuel
G-Unit leader 50 Cent has weighed in on the current war of words between Nicki Minaj and rap veteran Lil Kim.
In addition to Kim and Minaj, Fif also called out Diddy‘s new music as of late.
“I think it’s other things irritating Kim outside of Nicki Minaj, just having momentum of new artists doesn’t offend artists that have established themselves long before that,” Fif said in an interview with radio personality Lady La. “It’s obvious that she was inspired by some of Kim’s [rhymes], but that’s not bad. And it’s not a whole lot of female artists that you can make reference to so you’ll see those little influences even stronger and I think she’s hot, she’s got a good little thing going on right now as far as Nicki Minaj is concerned. I think it’s probably a little more irritating to see Puffy standing next to Nicki and for him to say that Ross reminds him of Biggie, because that’s desperation on his part because his music sucks right now. It’s the truth. It’s bad, so he’s gotta try and stay next to something else that has some momentum for him to be all right — from a business perspective, it seems like a cool move but not a cool move for hip-hop.” (Power 98)
The Unit’s Lloyd Banks recently compared the similarities between Minaj and Kim.
“[Laughs] Sheesh. I would go with Nicki right now,” he said in an interview. “Yeah, I like her as an artist. We came up in the same era, we were around the same age so I’m pretty sure one of her influences was probably Lil Kim and nothing is really reminding of the impact Kim had, since Nicki came. To have a concert and have a hundred Nickies in the front row… not too many new artists come and have a following like that. So you definitely have to acknowledge that.” (VIBE)
Young Money‘s Drake has defended Minaj in light of Kim’s recent disses.
“I just feel Lil Kim is a ‘G’ in the game, I feel like you’re part of an era that’s classic, that we’ll never forget as young kids, me and Nicki, so it’s like, you don’t have to do that,” Drake told television personality DJ Envy. “You don’t have to get on stage and announce your presence and tell people to pay homage. That’s a given and I watched Nicki pay homage to her time and time again and I just didn’t respect it at all and whoever else was on stage with her, I don’t respect that. You’re just wearing your heart on your sleeve, you’re showing that you’re upset. And to me, nobody’s done that to me yet and you know, but I would never expect Jay or Ye to get on stage and be like, ‘Yo, pay homage to me! You need to respect me!’ They know, they command my respect. They know their music and talent and that just signs that you’re losing it, like, that’s just how I felt and I really did take that personally. It bothered me and I really don’t get too caught up with the Twitter, Internet stuff, but I did see it and I was like, ‘You’re supposed to be a ‘G’ and that just wasn’t ‘G’ to me at all.” (“Sucker Free”)
Kim has said she would like the Young Money female emcee to pay homage for the lane she paved for her.
“Here’s my thing, all females that come in the game, we all need to stick together and I always try my best to embrace them but what happens is when you come into the game and realize that I’m not going away and my fans are still here and they can’t just step over me. They can’t just step on me and then they’re kinda like, they get upset and then they don’t want to be my friend anymore and I think that’s really childish, you know what I’m saying? It’s stupid because all I ask for is to be respected — pay homage at the end of the day, a lot of things go on behind the scenes that people don’t know about and it will be aired out. You can’t hide the truth — when I came out to do this promo tour, it was a reminder of where it came from because if you’re gonna swagger jack somebody and take their style, at least pay the respect and the homage…” (Kendra G)
Check out 50 Cent speaking on Lil Kim, Nicki Minaj and Diddy below:
