Best Female Hip-Hop Artist

Nicki Minaj
Diamond
Cymphonique
LoLa Monroe

The original “Queen of Hip-hop” Lil Kim makes it clear that she’s not going to back down and she’s ready to reclaim her throne by any means necessary–even if she has to step on Nicki’s neck. OUCH! The pint-size rapper paid a visit to Hot97 earlier today where she gave buddy Angie Martinez a great interview, which in my opinion was funny as hell. Kim talked about a range of topics from Faith Evans and the Notorious biopic to expressing her discontent with her clone Nicki Minaj and her crumbling relationship with Diddy.

On her relationship with Diddy:

“I’m sick of it. I’m sick of him at least not being loyal to one person… Be loyal to one person, and then maybe I can open my arms back up to you. I felt like out of everybody, he should have done that to me… My problem with you, Puffy, was the fact that you sit there and say you would never let homegirl talk reckless about me but you on a record and she talking reckless about me.”

On her beef with Nicki Minaj:

“I’ve always tried to remain as humble as possible, so even though people felt like, ‘Kim is Hollywood. She don’t know what’s going on in the streets,’ I always kept my ear to the streets. I’m always on the Internet. I saw her coming up. I saw her making her way… And I saw her coming in the game like, ‘All you chicks that been in the game for 10 years move over. Y’all need to sit down’—I thought that was disrespectful. [We] put together a little collage that we gon’ show and put out there just so people can see the history of how she came into the game and what she was doing and why this might have been offensive not just to me but to other females in the industry.”

Glad that it took Nicki Minaj’s swagger jackin’ a$$ to make Kim realize that her presence in the game is greatly missed. And for those of you calling Kim a hater and saying that she’s bitter, she has every reason to be mad. Nicki straight up jacked her style and has the world forgetting who was the originator. As for her thoughts on Diddy, she’s right! Dude is an opportunist. Hopefully, Kim will use this beef  as a way to finally put out some heat.

Listen to the full interview over @RR

Nas is requesting that Def Jam do one thing…just put his sh*t out! Looks like Def Jam is putting the God Son through the ringer and quite frankly he’s tired of it. Wouldn’t you be? The Queens rapper wants to give the people want they want and wants the bosses over at Def Jam to do the same.

Check out Nas’ well written letter below…

From: Nas
To: LA Reid, Steve Bartels, Steve Gawley, Michael Seltzer, Joseph Borrino, Chris Hicks
Subject: PUT MY S*** OUT!

Peace to all,

With all do respect to you all, Nas is NOBODY’s slave. This is not the 1800?s, respect me and I will respect you.

I won’t even tap dance around in an email, I will get right into it. People connect to the Artist @ the end of the day, they don’t connect with the executives. Honestly, nobody even cares what label puts out a great record, they care about who recorded it. Yet time and time again its the executives who always stand in the way of a creative artist’s dream and aspirations. You don’t help draw the truth from my deepest and most inner soul, you don’t even do a great job @ selling it. The #1 problem with DEF JAM is pretty simple and obvious, the executives think they are the stars. You aren’t…. not even close. As a matter of fact, you wish you were, but it didn’t work out so you took a desk job. To the consumer, I COME FIRST. Stop trying to deprive them! I have a fan base that dies for my music and a RAP label that doesn’t understand RAP. Pretty f***** up situation

This isn’t the 90?s though. Beefing with record labels is so 15 years ago. @ this point I just need you all to be very clear where I stand and how I feel about “my label.” I could go on twitter or hot 97 tomorrow and get 100,000 protesters @ your building but I choose to walk my own path my own way because since day one I have been my own man. I did business with Tommy Mottola and Donnie Einer, two of the most psycho dudes this business ever created. I worked well with them for one major reason……. they believed in me. The didn’t give a f*** about what any radio station or magazine said….those dudes had me.

Lost Tapes is a movement and a very important set up piece for my career as it stands. I started this over 5 years ago @ Columbia and nobody knew what it was or what it did but the label put it out as an LP and the fans went crazy for it and I single handlely built a new brand of rap albums. It’s smart and after 5 years it’s still a head of the game. This feels great and you not feeling what I’m feeling is disturbing. Don’t get in the way of my creativity. We are aligned with the stars here, this is a movement. There is a thing called KARMA that comes to haunt you when you tamper with the aligning stars. WE ARE GIVING THE PEOPLE EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT. Stop throwing dog s*** on a MAGICAL moment.

You don’t get another Nas recording that doesn’t count against my deal….PERIOD! Keep your b******* $200,000.00 fund. Open the REAL budget. This is a New York pioneers ALBUM, there ain’t many of us. I am ready to drop in the 4th quarter. You don’t even have s*** coming out! Stop being your own worst enemy. Let’s get money!

-N.Jones

Now that’s gangsta!

Sidebar: LMAO @ the execs wanting to be stars! Why won’t they just let Nas be great?!

Is Nas wrong for airing out his label?

In the October/November issue of Complex magazine, rapper Kid Cudi kept it really funky in his interview when discussing his dislike for D.C. rapper Wale. According to Cudi, he doesn’t have any beef with Wale, but he just doesn’t like dude’s vibe. Check out what he had to say…

Complex: Where did the whole attitude shift towards Wale stem from?

Kid Cudi: I really don’t understand what’s up with this guy, but he’s just somebody I don’t click with anymore. I started making changes in my life and started to realize positive energy around me, and he never really had a good energy. I never felt like he wanted to see me prosper, it was just one of those niggas that was envious rather than happy for a nigga. I could be reading it wrong, but I’m not making beef and rearranging my life. It’s pretty obvious he feels some type of way about it. I’m not into peer mediation and working things out, I’m just trying to provide for my daughter and my family and making music for my fans. I vibe with certain people and some people I don’t.

Complex: Last September you shot a page for GQ’s Man of the Year issue with him and Drake; was everything cool then?

Kid Cudi: The whole time me and him and Drake were doing the GQ shoot,Wale was bitching and being aggravated that clothes weren’t in his size, just really not cooperating and being difficult, and just being a diva. The photographer was like, “Wale, c’mon, smile a bit” and he was like, “Man, I don’t smile, let these other guys smile.” I was like, what kind of shit is that? In my head I’m thinking “man, this is GQ. If these niggas want you to smile, smile. We just got picked for “Men of the Year” that shit is awesome. It’s wack to be on that shit when you’re at a photoshoot, he shouldn’t be getting all riled up. There was tension throughout the whole shoot. Me and Drake have a rapport, we’re cool. We were automatically hitting it off, and kicking it, and just Wale was not trying to be in the situation. He was trying to be too cool. He was acting like he’s too good for the situation, and that’s how he always is. He always acts like he’s bigger than what he is, and I don’t fuck with that at all.

And Kid Cudi isn’t lying…’cause according to a few snitches Wale can be an asshole!

Check out a few flicks and some footage from Kid Cudi’s dope photoshoot!

Seems like Ciara and Keri Hilson are really going to be throwing blows! The Georgia peaches are dropping their albums on the same exact day. Yep, Ciara’s long awaited Basic Instinct and Keri’s No Boys Allowed albums are set to drop November 30th. So, who do you think is going to come out on top? I’m putting all my money on Keri, I’m pretty sure she’s going to whoop Ciara’s Hollywood ass! Anwyhoo, in an interview with the Boombox, Ciara finally addressed the rumors of an alleged beef with Miss Keri Baaaby. She says,

“In reference to the Keri situation, I’m so in a different space mentally I can’t even bring myself to do that.  It’s not [important] to me. There’s just so much stuff to get out of life than that. There’s so much more for me to accomplish in my career. Personally, I’ve decided that it doesn’t make sense to do that.”

So, is CiCi saying that Keri isn’t even worth her time? Sure sounds like it!

I’m convinced Ciara lied in that interview ’cause who was she talking to in  “Basic Instinct (U Got Me)” when she said,

“See I was out buying Chanel bags/While I was doing that you turned up your swag, u got me/Yup, call me slippin forget your hustle on, shottie I ain’t trippin/I been in the game since ’03/You can try but you still can do it like me”

My point exactly!

And while we wait for these southern gals to get it poppin’…check out the cover to Keri Hilson’s new single “Pretty Girl Rock” set to drop next week.