Nicki Minaj Expresses Gratitude to Queen Latifah, Talks Women in Hip-hop & Growing Empire

Nicki Minaj on the ‘Queen Latifah Show’

Rapper Nicki Minaj stopped by the Queen Latifah Show this week where she praised the female rap pioneer for paving a way for her and other women in hip-hop:

“You’ve opened so many doors for me and so many other women and it’s insane because I always reference you when I always talk about female rappers who’ve like kinda paved the way in terms of a business woman and mogul and all-around entertainer. And to be sitting here doing your show is just a great moment for hip-hop, so thank you for having me.”

As the only woman on this year’s list of Forbes’ Hip-Hop Cash Kings, Nicki also spoke on the struggle women face in male-dominated hip-hop, her own growing empire and more.

Nicki and Latifah then took turns goofing around with different accents. See snippets from the interview and watch it in full below.

On women in hip-hop:

“It’s been crazy because most of the program directors, for instance, on hip-hop radio are men and I’ve had conversations with these people and they’re like, ‘You know, I can’t relate to a female rapper. I don’t wanna hear my female rapping…” ’cause rap is such a braggadocios… So a lot of guys don’t wanna see a woman like that and I find with even women, we wanna hear a male rapper more than we wanna hear a female rapper. It’s crazy but I don’t think that’s ever gonna change.”

On her fruit-infused Moscato:

“I have this Myx Moscato . It’s really good. I wish you guys could taste it. It’s so good. It’s only like 6% alcohol, it’s fruity… I want it to be a lifestyle drink.”

On being on American Idol:

“It was real scary and also like just as a Black woman too though, and being apart of hip-hop I always feel like I’m at the bottom of the totem pole, like I’m at the bottom of every totem pole I feel like, really… in terms of proving yourself, in terms of showing that you’re intelligent, and you can carry on a conversation, and you can speak on many different topics.

So I felt like I was kinda representing for so many different people… like rap and then Black women and then women in general. Being on Idol, you know, I made a mental note a lot of times… I just didn’t want it come across like a caricature of Nicki Minaj. I wanted it to be the human being — the Onika Tanya Maraj who nobody ever really speaks to. And that’s what I found. A lot people came up to me and said ‘You’re a real person! Like you’re kinda like a regular person with real thoughts!’ and I was like, ‘thank you!’”

On her new clothing line at Kmart:

“I have a clothing line with Kmart and that was really hard for me because I tussled with that decision. My inspiration was a lot of the dresses on Idol that I wore, they were super expensive and my fans would be like, ‘Where’d you get that?’ But they couldn’t necessarily afford it because they’re in college or whatever. So I wanted to create dresses that I would wear. They’re free-flowing and they’re pretty and you can kind of dress it up however you want to.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1TMr18s4Jk

[spotted via urbanislandz.com ]

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