Iconic hip hop star MC Lyte recently shared her views on the two most popular ladies in hip hop right now, embracing Nicki Minaj as an amazing businesswoman and defending Iggy Azalea as a “fan of hip hop.”
Azalea’s presence in the hip hop community has been hotly debated, but recently more and more hip hop stars have been voicing their support for the Australian native.
Only a few days after rapper Kendrick Lamar shared some encouraging words with Azalea, one of the pioneers for female emcees is also defending her spot in the rap game.
“What I think about her is that she is a fan of hip hop,” MC Lyte told Hello Beautiful. “I’ve heard her on a few interviews and I know who she is in terms of having traveled abroad since I was 17, 18 years old. And there are people of all colors that love hip hop. When she says that she is a lover of this culture, I believe her.”
She also added that she thinks it’s wrong for people to say Azalea doesn’t have a place in the genre.
“Everyone has something to contribute,” she continued. “You either like it or you don’t, but you can’t just say, ‘You can’t be here.’ ”
It’s similar to the message Lamar shared when he told Billboard that Azalea is just “doing her thing.”
“Do your thing, continue to rock it,” Lamar said as a message to Azalea. “Because obviously God wants you here.”
MC Lyte then changed gears to focus on the self-proclaimed hip-hop Barbie, Nicki Minaj.
The beautiful rap star is often acknowledged for her sexual lyrics or style transformation, but Lyte says she needs more credit as a phenomenal businesswoman as well.
“I think Nicki is a great businesswoman and I think she came at the right time,” she said. “Even guys from camps who had female emcees in their camps abandoned their female emcee to have Nicki on their tracks.”
As much as she embraced Minaj as a strong businesswoman, she seemed to be a bit reluctant to actually team up with Minaj for a track.
She hasn’t ruled it out completely but says she and Minaj would have to “agree upon [their] subject matter” before collaborating on a track.
