Hip-hop has a long tradition of battle rapping, with artists regularly engaging in verbal combat to decide on who’s the best on the mic. While some duels had seemingly violent consequences — the beef between Biggie and Tupac, for example — others ended with the competitors becoming great friends, like Jay-Z and Nas.
Last year, Remy Ma squared off against Nicki Minaj in a fierce lyrical smackdown, but now the Bronx rapper is calling for unity.
Over the weekend the “Melanin Magic” rapper hosted a women’s empowerment brunch at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills and said the music business seems to be finally be embracing multiple female emcees at a time.
“A change has come,” Remy said. “There’s always been a lot of female rappers that had talent. They just weren’t being promoted or taken seriously or given an opportunity. For so long, it’s been the same thing over and over and over.”
Though women like Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, and Remy Ma have all scored recent hits, women are often pitted against each other, both by the industry and their fans who want to crown only one woman “queen.”
In spite of her public spats with some, Remy Ma said things have to change and called on female hip-hop artists to stop fighting and start working together.
“There’s strength in numbers. So if I’m doing good, and this girl here is doing good, people will take it more seriously,” she said. “We all bring something different to the table, and once people realize that, stop fighting each other, work together and help build each other up, we’ll grow even more.”
