Nicki Minaj and Lil Kim Rivalry Explained From a Literary Perspective

As a fan watching this rivalry, i'm a little resentful of how Kim has been portrayed. ( Childish? Bitter?) These aren't true, they're not applicable, they are onesided. Kim tried to be benevolent and reach out to Nicki. She's actually worked with Nicki. Nicki threatened her ability to make money by taking her style, becoming popular and Nicki teasing her, claiming to "take her crown" trying to "take her spot" threatened to destroy her ability to make money amongst a younger more impressionable audience. A lyrical battle was warranted. Her career would suffer without it. And Nicki tho still the more popular of the two is losing the fight that she picked. There are otherways to view this battle.

Kim is an alexander dumas character that was mislead into a friendship ( with Cash Money )that betrayed her trust and cast her aside. She was replaced by a look-a-like ( Nicki Minaj) and banished. And as the hip hop queen rose against her detractors she came home to find her own subjects didnt recognize her and had formed a protective circle around the imposters and are out for her blood.

Let the climactic war scene begin.

I didn't call Kim childish or bitter, I called her Black Friday rap childish and bitter, and if you took a look at the lyrics you might find it hard to disagree. I think maybe if Kim put more energy into making an original album of her own rather than cashing in on Nicki's success by putting her down, it would have been significantly more honorable.

I'm sorry. I really dont understand you position. Why is Black Friday childish or bitter? The nature of rap is competitive. Its a lyrical battle, its been like that since it began, that fact is part of its DNA. It seems as tho when men battle its an entertaining war, when women do it its "catty" or "childish".

Kim's lyrics embarrass Nicki belittle her. They metaphorically threaten her with bodily harm and they do it in a clever way---> That's what they are supposed to do. I think the issue may be that you dont realize what Nicki has done to deserve the attack. Here is a list of songs that nicki has sent out veiled "subliminal' insults to Kim all BEFORE Kim penned Black Friday. I'm only listing the mainstream work, because there are plenty of other songs before she became famous 2 of which she actually mentioned Kim's name:

Hello Goodmorning 'featuring, Diddy, Rick Ross, Dirty Money"
I ain't thru as with Kim Cole
Pissing on 'Em on Pink Friday
Roman's Revenge on Pink Friday
Check it out on Pink Friday featuring Will I Am
(Kim Claims, but i'm not totally convinced) <--- Monster with Jay-Z, Rick Ross and Kanye West

All of these songs are before Kim attacked. And in the songs nicki calls kim, "old" "wrinkled" "a mutt" "broke" "dusty". Remember she did all of this while claiming to take her position, and while purposely working alongside of people kim has famously done business with.

Who of the two is being immature? Tragedy is just another in a long line of childish and lyrically stunted attacks on Kim. And you have to admit that Nicki's actions have damaged Kim's relationship with young fans. Hip hop doesnt respect people who turn the other cheek, the moment Nicki became a true threat it's basically kims JOB and DUTY to respond and destroy her...lyrically of course ;).

I had no intention of singling out Lil Kim. In fact, my article was meant to be just as deprecating of Nicki so if it didn't come off that way I apologize. I admit that when researching this article, most of the information I found did not go too far in depth into the history of the feud and fell in favor of Nicki, which might account for the apparent bias in my article. I wasn't entirely knowledgeable of the situation so thank you for offering me an alternative perspective.
That being said, I actually think rap battles in general are childish (whether male, female, amphibian, etc...). Although one might argue that rivalries are inevitable, I honestly don't think they are integral to any music industry. It's just a cheap way of getting publicity or putting someone else down to push yourself ahead.
Lastly, while I still standby my assessment of "Black Friday," and rap feuds in general as immature ("corny broad I'll leave you bloody like you menstruated"?), I don't deny that Kim's raps were also hard hitting and effective, and much superior to any attack Nicki has launched on Kim thus far.

I undersand what you're saying about "rap beefs" being immature. Yeeeeah...ya kinda have a point there, they are usually born of some immaturity and bruised ego's. They are complicated version of "rap battles" an orchestrated competition of charisma presentation and lyricism. But I have to admit it, rap beefs hook you like a soap opera. The fact that the artists actually have a problem that spurs the back and forth makes it even more entertaining. It's like watching an old Ricki Lake episode, you see the immaturity, but you JUST.CANT.LOOK.AWAY. lol!

I dont mind the idea of one rapper coming up and trying to "claim the throne" . THAT is absolutely part of the culture. And there is nothing wrong with it. rap / dancehall / spoken work poetry are all competitive art forms. A different dynamic than say Jazz or Country music. As long as it stays on wax its all good. The immaturity steps in when ppl start talking crazily in interviews : " that dude bedda not come to oakland or else blah blah and blah goes down." <--- I mean, why?

Let me illuminate a bit on the Kim / Nicki thing as I've come to see it. When this thing first began I thought Kim was being ridiculous, my actual 9-5 job has forced me to research the situation and I've come to change my mind.

Nicki has been rapping noteably since abt 2007-she was an exciting new presence her rapstyle was similar to fox brown. At that time she ( like many upcoming artists) took the route of trying to draw out some of the older females by taunting them. "I'm sick of this old broads talking about what they did, I DONT CARE" "You old b*tches can feed me grapes" ( paraphrase) an on and on. She actually mentioned Kim's name and redid Kim's songs. Kim didnt take issue at that time.

Nicki eventually signed with young money-she completey changed her style to imitate lil kim... for the details take a look at this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1u4k7alH2Q. I mean I could a lot of similarities and even i was stunned by that vid that Kims camp put out. Nicki is clearly climbing into the mainstream public and still lodging underhanded "subliminal shots" at Kim.

*Jay-Z mastered the art of subliminal shots after his mentioning of 50cent launched 50s career into the stratosphere. Nicki is taking notes.

With all of this Kim has been watching her and seeing as she said "this girl was very inspired by me". Kim thought that Nicki may have been being advised on how to present herself. (i.e.: this isnt her fault they are telling her to insult me and they are obviously telling her to dress like me. ) Kim said: A lot of new artists especially young women get bad advice. She still didnt take it personally. She said ( and I believe her) that she felt once she got over there the girl would see that there was no need to keep taking "shots" at her.

Kim has said she saw Nicki's star rising as a means for her to get her foot back in the door. Both of the women could rock together ( as she saw it). She went to Cash Money and the execs over there were really excited to bring her on. She flew out there and met with them several times. They called her up and asked her to do a verse on a record...she complied. They put nicki on the third verse, the song is HORRIBLE and of the three artists on there Kim clearly did the best even tho the whole thing was weak. They put the song on itunes and the audience responded to kim, so cash money pulled the song. All of the things they had promised Kim went out of the window, her relaunch, her video everything. She couldnt get it on the phone

Kim was furious with young money ( not Nicki ). Kim still thought none of this had anything to do with Nicki. It all changed when she finally saw Nicki at a party for the second time ever. Nicki walked passed her and "rolled her eyes at me". <--not the most professional way to put it but to her that signified Nicki felt guilt and actually did have something to do with what was taking place

cue song "hello goodmorning" Nicki is wearing a Kim wig, and sitting next to diddy and insulting kim at the same time " Did I kill the queen alexander mcqueen". Kim started to speak out angrily on radio shows. Mostly towards diddy she was upset that he would sit next to Nicki and allow her to insult Kim on his own music.

Nicki responded with Roman's Revenge, basically claiming Kim was desperate and jealous and then her famous Hot 97 interview claiming that she has always given Kim love...there is no evidence of that. Nicki claimed the foxy brown warned her of Kim's treacher. Foxy went on twitter and said "it never happened". Nicki claimed she asked Kim if everything was all good and Kim said it was, Kim said it was a bald faced lie.

Lil Kim finally lost her temper launched Black friday and everything surrounding it. Somehow nicki has ridden this entire beef out as the "mature" one of the two its.

Black Friday is Kim fighting back. Kim is old school where rap beefs and battles were more open and obvious. Nicki is much more passive aggressive Kims biggest mistake has been responding back in a fury and too openly and honestly. But I personally think she has every right to. No one has the right to destroy another's career no longer how long they took off.

sorry for the long book, but in short do i think that Kim could have handled herself with more saavy and grace? Yes. Do i think that she is using Nicki to make a name for herself? Yes, but since Nicki used her so gracelessly she has every right to. I dont think Kim has done anything wrong, maybe not completely saavy but not wrong.

Thank you for that! I know there are two sides to every story but this just shows how skewed the media can be in portraying both sides. I have a ton more respect for where Lil Kim is coming from after reading this, and I think it's unfortunate that these details are so rarely represented, at least in the summaries of the feud that I have read.
And I shamefully agree about the soap opera-like magnetism of rap beefs. While it's easy to look down on them, it's hard to look away. They definitely add a new dynamic .

Lol! well thank you for providing an outlet for my bizarre obsession with this feud. * Digital Dap *. A nicki minaj fan posted your article on Nicki's website with your name removed btw. Whenever i try to google this article so I can respond, the other version comes up.

I hope that Kim responds to this new song by nicki in a way that REALLY sets her up. My thoughts would be to ignore Nicki declaring she wont go against her until her rhymes get better and go after young money and Lil wayne...so that her attacks are no longer seen as some petty "girlfight"