Earlier this year, Billboard named Nicki Minaj the greatest female rapper of all time, sitting at #10 on their top 50 list – the highest ranking of any woman in hip-hop. Some might consider it blasphemous but Nicki Minaj's mentor, Lil Wayne, certainly believes that Billboard got it right. During a recent interview on All The Smoke, co-hosts Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson asked Weezy who he believes the greatest female rapper of all time is. “Ain’t nobody f***ing with Nicki,” he said. “They come after.”
His comments aren’t necessarily shocking, especially since his faith in Nicki’s talents helped catapult her to the top. Naturally, the Queen rapper responded on Instagram where she shared several other clips from the interview, including one where Wayne explained discovering her and Drake. “I also didn’t know they would be Drake and Nicki, like I didn’t know that. But I was more excited, I wanted them to see what they could be. They always leaned on that — they always leaned on my confidence I instilled in them,” he said.
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Nicki Responds To Lil Wayne’s Praise
In response to Wayne’s praise her for, Nicki penned a message on Instagram thanking Wayne for his support over the years and for putting his faith early in her career. “I’ll give u a dollar if you can find a lie‼️‼️‼️‼️ …When the greatest rapper of all time believed & still believes in you. 🥹♥️ I sure did lean on your confidence & u sure were ALWAYS there. Til this day- when I send you smthng you send a verse bakk. @liltunechi ♥️ we love you so much. We thank you so much. Hat Long live the BAR! Bar for Bar. No pun intended,” she captioned the post.
During the interview, Lil Wayne detailed discovering Nicki Minaj as he was building the Young Money roster. He explained that he specifically wanted a female rapper from New York who didn’t sound like Lil Kim or Foxy Brown. “And when I heard, Nicki was sounding like me. She was changing her voice up, I was like, ‘Okay.’ Like, I ain’t never seen this. This rare. New York female artists, I had to keep telling ’em, ‘Yo, don’t do that, don’t say that,’” he explained. Check Nicki Minaj’s post above.
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