Jermaine Dupri Says Today’s Female Hip-Hop Stars Are “Like Strippers Rapping”; Cardi B Responds
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Jermaine Dupri is picking fights. The Atlanta rapper and producer recently sat for an interview with People, and he spent some time talking about Da Brat, the ’90s rap star whose career he helped shepherd. In that interview, Dupri said that Da Brat “broke the mold for female rappers” and added, “since then, female rappers have been able to sustain and sell a lot of records — actually, more records than guys.”
But when asked about current female rappers like Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, and Megan Thee Stallion, Dupri said this:
I feel like they all are rapping about the same thing, and I don’t think they’re showing us who’s the best rapper. For me, it’s like strippers rapping. As far as rap goes, I’m not getting who is the best rapper. I’m getting OK, you got a story about you dancing in the club, you got a story about you dancing in the club, you got a story about you dancing in the club. OK. All right. Cool. Who’s going to be the rapper?… At some point, somebody’s going to have to break out of that mold and talk about other things.
Afterward, his interviewers claimed that Dupri couldn’t name a single female rapper who he respects right now. Here’s the video:
Naturally, Cardi B, who is both a great rapper and a former stripper, did not take kindly to this. Interestingly, though, Cardi did not respond directly to Dupri. Instead, she made the point that plenty of female rappers don’t really talk about sex all the time, and she offered up some examples: Tierra Whack, Kamaiyah, Rapsody, Alabama rapper Chika Oranika. Here’s Cardi’s response:
A couple of points. First off: There are more successful women in rap right now than at any time in the genre’s history, and a whole lot of them are truly great. Second: Maybe the guy who got famous for introducing Kriss Kross to the world is not the ideal defender of the sanctity of rap. Just saying.
