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Nicki Minaj the best female rapper ever?

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P

Pimpwerx

Member
Bold title, I guess, but worth discussing. Is Nicki Minaj the best female rapper ever? A year ago, I woulda said hell no. She has an interesting style, but it sounded so forced and she wasn't getting the closing verse on any song.

However, the first time I started taking her seriously was on the Young Money album "We Are Young Money" where she featured on a number of songs. The collabo "Finale" featured all the big hitters, and I feel that she had one of the best verses on there, if not the best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qojDyZEqnGI#t=2m30s

I'm partial to Wayne and Drake, so I think they cleaned up pretty nicely after her, and Lil Twist's verse was pretty cool. But has a lady ever hung with the boys like that before? I'm gonna list two other female rappers I respect the same (sorry, but Lauren Hill didn't do it long enough to make the list)

Lil Kim
MC Lyte

So, I haven't listened to Nicki's album yet, but I've heard all her singles so far. Fire. Massive Attack grew on me. Your Love is fire, with a great hook. Check It Out I didn't even know was her until late, but it made me nod my head. Right Thru Me is also a good song.

However, I don't think her singles represent her best work or show off her talents. I think her best work comes in collabos with men where she's basically force to step her game up.

Here she kills the Hello Good Morning Remix from Dirty Money:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OciO2MPnmzU#t=1m30s

She pretty much pulled an Em and Renegaded Ross, Ye and Jay on Kanye's Monster:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ona42jz8w0k#t=3m36s

Here she makes Keyshia Cole's song I Ain't Thru something other than another KC sob story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCMJEw1qTMs#t=1m6s

She's the only reason to listen to Gyptian's Hold Yuh:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz-u6I9bbSQ#t=0m27s

The girl can spit. I don't know if she writes her own shit, but if she does, then that's even more amazing. Her flow is versatile, and rarely boring. I don't like all her facial contortions as she's rapping, but that's my one negative. I've never seen a female rapper that's arguably as good as, or better, than the men.

In comparison, here's some classics from MC Lyte, who was the female boss in her day.

Ruff Neck was her appeal to the mainstream, and is probably her most-popular song. It's not her best, but I'll list it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygteZWP_tL0

Cha Cha Cha might be my favorite Lyte song. I'm a sucker for the beat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpSeJP2HfaY

Ride Wit Me got nominated for a Grammy. Not a bad track:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcqIz9FFEQQ

She went off in Cold Rock The Party. I think Heather B might have been the first hard woman of hip-hop, but Lyte was the first with real talent:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh5OGOunafs

She could be thoughtful like The Rap Game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p__vumAAD-Q

I remember this song from Rap City back in the day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbud7ZEeAYQ

The other female I respect is Lil Kim. Made her name with Junior Mafia, and was actually the only redeemable member of that awful group of Biggie dickriders. Her career was a bit of all over the place IMO, because her production wasn't really that consistent. But it might just be my memory fucking with me.

Lighters Up is my favorite song of hers. Nice flow, great beat and when I was in NYC, it did hit home:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8l_0N8lLWY

I think her flow was probably tightest on Jump Off. I haven't heard any of her mixtapes, so this is the best I've heard from her:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HER1RxputAw

Crush On You is the first video I thought she looked good in. Probably the only one, actually. :lol Anyway, her verses were better than BIG's IMO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDoQ2wGT6-k#t=1m18s

Ladies Night was one of the best tracks for most of these ladies. I don't think Angie Martinez ever sounded that good. Left Eye stepped her shit up too. You'd expect the best female rapper ever to smoke this ensemble though. I might give the best verse to Left Eye. If she didn't die, I might have included her in the list, but her sample size is still too small:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoQwdzKm7hk#t=0m32s

The first time I heard her was on Junior MAFIA's Player's Anthem. Alright verse. She came off hard and nasty, which was new for the time. Since she was first to be successful with that angle, I guess she deserves credit for it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJW1h5U6SxM#t=2m59s

Finally, Quiet Storm is my favorite hook from her. It used to be my favorite verse of hers until Lighters Up. Mobb Deep should thank her for making this song relevant. She did Mobb like she regularly did Junior MAFIA. Just way out of these dudes' league. This wasn't Shook Ones Mobb...at least not on this track:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d3TfbjJUEU#t=1m14s

So my opinion is that Nicki Minaj is far and away the best female rapper ever. The girl can spit, I assume she writes her own shit, and her flow is versatile. She also did a better job of cleaning herself up than Kim did. She must have had a better surgeon.

I'm not a fan of Nicki's attitude or personality. She strikes me as a bit fake, but I don't have to talk to her, I just listen to her music. Thoughts? Were there any other females I missed besides Lauren and Left Eye? PEACE.
 
M

MCX

Banned
eve_red.gif
 
P

Pimpwerx

Member
lightless_shado said:
QFT.
Click to expand...
Who is that? NCX changed his post to Eve, who I do not consider to be good. PEACE.

EDIT: NM, I finally made out her ring. It's Jean Grae. *goes to listen to some songs*
 
H

HiResDes

Member
No, not even close...You seem rather clueless too. There's Foxy Brown, Dessa, Lil' Kim, Medusa, Jean Grae, Missy Elliot, Eternia, Rah Digga, Rapsody, RaTheMC, Figures of Speech, MC Lyte, J. Davey, Natalie Stewart (The Floacist), and countless others who would demolish her.

Edit: Jean Grae, Eternia, or Rah Digga are probably the best right now.
Edit 2: Forgot about Dessa, Dessa is probably the best.
 
P

Personifried

Member
The Nicki Minaj hype has really gotten out of control.

She's not bad by any stretch, and she can impress with flow. Like a slightly-downgraded female Eminem in that regard.

But I can't sit comfortably with her being the best anything ever, because she's not a good lyricist. At all.

Like 99% of her lyrics are completely worthless. It's a rare occasion when she actually says anything. And I dunno if you've heard this, but apparently good lyrics are an important part of being a rapper.
 
P

Pimpwerx

Member
HiResDes said:
No, not even close...You seem rather clueless too. There's Foxy Brown, Lil' Kim, Medusa, Jean Grae, Missy Elliot, Eternia, Rah Digga, Rapsody, RaTheMC, Figures of Speech, MC Light, J. Davey, Natalie Stewart (The Floacist), and countless others who would demolish her.

Edit: Jean Grae or Rah Digga are probably the best right now.
Click to expand...
Foxy went deaf. Too small a sample size. I mentioned Kim. Don't know Medusa or Jean. Missy was better at R&B than rapping (her onomatapeia shit is wack). Eternia I don't know. Rah Digga's solo album was la bomba (she was awesome in collabos with Busta). Rapsody, RaTheMC, Figures, J. Davey I don't know. Lyte I mentioned. Floacist had a couple songs I liked but were a bit too...feminine for me.

Give me some links to your faves though. This thread is a cheap excuse to post links to favorite female rap songs. :D PEACE.
 
D

DancingJesus

Banned
Personifried said:
The Nicki Minaj hype has really gotten out of control.

She's not bad by any stretch, and she can impress with flow. Like a slightly-downgraded female Eminem in that regard.

But I can't sit comfortably with her being the best anything ever, because she's not a good lyricist. At all.

Like 99% of her lyrics are completely worthless. It's a rare occasion when she actually says anything. And I dunno if you've heard this, but apparently good lyrics are an important part of being a rapper.
Click to expand...

Tell that to Kanye.

DeathbyVolcano said:
Other than her absolutely stealing Monster on Kanye's new album, absolutely not.
Click to expand...

Pretty much. It's not even really close.
 
P

Personifried

Member
DancingJesus said:
Tell that to Kanye.
Click to expand...

Kanye has so far shown himself to be a much better lyricist than Minaj. That's not to say that he's a great lyricist or that lyrical content is the reason why his music is good. And he also has several years of a head start on her, but there's no real case to make for Minaj being a better lyricist than Kanye.
 
P

Pimpwerx

Member
To clarify a bit, I'm running with the idea of her being best ever mostly because of her head-to-head performances against men. She's on a label with two of the best rappers in the game now, Drake and Weezy. Love or hate them, they make incredibly popular rap songs that clearly bridge many demographics. She's held her own or been better than arguably the best overall rapper of all-time in Jay-Z. For sheer production, that dude can't be topped.

I think Monster made me stop and rethink my feelings on her. Finale may have been a fluke, but Monster was not. She killed that track. When someone tops Jay, they usually earn notice. Why not Nicki in this instance? She took out three of the best men on that track. PEACE.
 
Z

zero_suit

Member
Pimpwerx said:
To clarify a bit, I'm running with the idea of her being best ever mostly because of her head-to-head performances against men. She's on a label with two of the best rappers in the game now, Drake and Weezy. Love or hate them, they make incredibly popular rap songs that clearly bridge many demographics. She's held her own or been better than arguably the best overall rapper of all-time in Jay-Z. For sheer production, that dude can't be topped.
Click to expand...

Huh? :lol :lol
 
S

Sweedishrodeo

the smegma spreader
it is 2010 for the record. what i mean is her album is shit, but that doesn't define an artist's skill or might these days. her guest spots have been top class.

she is killing it, so fuck lil kim. missy elliot is on par though.
 
M

m3k

Member
cant say that anyone elses track record is too short, nikki hasnt done enough either

you cant make out like shes been killing it for long... and killing it, i mean monster verse

Sweedishrodeo said:
it is 2010 for the record. what i mean is her album is shit, but that doesn't define an artist's skill or might these days. her guest spots have been top class.

she is killing it, so fuck lil kim. missy elliot is on par though.
Click to expand...

missy elliot on a whole nother level, im not even a big fan of hers
 
F

Fatalah

Member
Really like her style, was blown away by her on the new Kanye album. She jumped out, I actually made me look her up.
 
D

DancingJesus

Banned
Personifried said:
Kanye has so far shown himself to be a much better lyricist than Minaj. That's not to say that he's a great lyricist or that lyrical content is the reason why his music is good. And he also has several years of a head start on her, but there's no real case to make for Minaj being a better lyricist than Kanye.
Click to expand...

Kanye West on the track Power:

"Colin Powells, Austin Powers
Lost in translation with a whole f-ckin’ nation
...
At the end of day, goddammit, I’m killin’ this shit
I know damn well y’all feelin’ this shit
I don’t need yo’ pussy, bitch, I’m on my own dick
I ain’t gotta power trip, who you goin’ home with?
How ‘Ye doin’? I’m survivin’
I was drinkin’ earlier, now I’m drivin’
Where the bad b*tches, huh? Where ya hidin’?
I got the power, make yo’ life so excitin"

That's some deep stuff.

I'm not taking away from Kanye as a musician, I think his compositions are some of the best. But lyrics are definitely not his strong suit.
 
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