R&B/Hip-Hop

Nicki Minaj has shown serious love to Sabrina Carpenter and Billie Eilish in a new interview with Vogue Italia.
On Tuesday (May 27), the publication published a lengthy sit down with the Barbz leader, and asked her to share some thoughts on the overnight fame that comes from social media now.

“A superstar is a superstar,” Minaj said. “And if you are one, you’ll find a way to shine — with or without social media. Like any tool, it can be used well or not. What I feel, sometimes, is that today’s artists don’t realize how important the record label is. They don’t realize how much happens behind the scenes. It all looks easy.”

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Minaj was then asked to share a few of her favorite new artists at the moment. “Sabrina Carpenter,” she said. “I didn’t know she’d been around that long when I started listening to her. A breath of fresh air. I like Billie Eilish. I love everything she does. Then there’s a dancehall artist… his name’s Skeng.”

While Minaj and the “Espresso” star have yet to link on a track, Eilish appeared uncredited on the former’s latest album Pink Friday 2. On the intro track, “Are You Gone Already,” a high-pitched Eilish opens up the album before Minaj starts rapping about the love she has for her children.

Minaj also recently asked Eilish a question in the latter’s star-studded appearance in British Vogue last month. “Was there ever a time in your career, or before you made it, when you wished people couldn’t see you and that they could only hear the music, and really get a chance to just listen to the written words?” Minaj asked.

“Nicki, this question made me tear up a little,” Eilish eplied. “Well … like you said at the beginning of that question, I’ve never really felt very beautiful or seen myself in that way, so I definitely never struggled with the idea that it would overshadow anything, since I didn’t even really see it myself. I’ve had to really convince myself that I am beautiful. Being a woman is hard.”

In the 1970s, “The Future Is Female” became a rallying cry built to encourage and challenge women, to portend that they were poised to surpass their male counterparts. Nearly five decades later, that prophecy rings truer than ever — especially inside the squared circle and in front of the mic.

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The world of wrestling is birthing perennial WrestleMania main-eventers with names like Bianca Belair, Rhea Ripley, Liv Morgan, Becky Lynch, Tiffany Stratton, Iyo Sky and Charlotte Flair headlining a stout women’s division in the WWE. The same could be said in the hip-hop world, where Billboard’s newly crowned Best Female Rapper of All Time, Nicki Minaj, still reigns supreme. While the Queen continues to lap adversaries with her decades-long dominance, her competition is fiercer than ever, as Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B, Latto, Doechii, GloRilla, Sexxy Redd continue to push towards pole position. 

What makes this era of female wrestlers and rappers so compelling is the depth on both sides. In the 1990s and 2000s, WWE relied on sex appeal and titillating theatrics to captivate the audience. Lita and Trish Stratus dazzled with their skill and in-ring acrobatics, but the WWE leaned more into their desirability to satiate their audience’s cravings. During the McMahon era, Bra and Panties matches were considered the premium for the female division, due to the company’s dearth of talent. Even during The Divas era, when talent increased substantially with the arrival of The Bella Twins, Natalya, AJ Lee, Beth Phoenix, and others, the desire to see these women headline noteworthy premium live events like WrestleMania felt like a pipe dream. 

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The trajectory was a bit different for female rap. In the late 1980s and 1990s, pioneers such as Roxanne Shante, MC Lyte, Salt-N-Pepa, and Queen Latifah made a significant impact on the rap scene with their sharp lyrics and unflinching demeanor. Although the men dominated the conversation, those marquee names went toe-to-toe with the males, twice as vigorous and swaggering. In the mid-to-late ’90s, Lil Kim and Foxy Brown grew in fame and supplanted those stars with sex-laden bars. Other artists attempted to replicate the blueprint, but their tawdry attempts didn’t pay any dividends; when Minaj detonated in the early 2010s, she had the female rap landscape in a bearhug, dominating radio and the Billboard Hot 100.

Fast forward to the 2020s, and the times have changed. WrestleMania 37 included not only a main event headlined by two female superstars but also two Black women: Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks. Liv Morgan became the first woman to win the inaugural WWE Crown Jewel Championship last year. At the same time, Tiffany Stratton was arguably the company’s top rookie, winning Money in the Bank in 2024 and, inevitably, her first Women’s Championship earlier this year. With WWE’s developmental system, NXT, serving as the training ground for budding talent, new stars are making their presence felt there before stepping onto the main roster. New stars are surging up the ranks, ranging from Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer to Jordynne Grace to newly-promoted acts Roxanne Perez and Guilia.

Though Minaj remains the top woman on the throne, the battle for supremacy is more brutal, as proven by Billboard’s Top 10 Hottest Female Rappers list last year, which saw GloRilla oust the Queens rapper from the top slot. Megan Thee Stallion rocketed to superstardom overnight when she nailed three Grammys at the 2021 ceremonies. Doechii’s genre-bending defiance has the music landscape salivating at her every move. And though Cardi has yet to drop her sophomore album, her 2018 debut, Invasion of Privacy, remains a landmark moment in the rap landscape.

In 2011, when Beyonce shouted out: “Who runs the world?,” the singer wasn’t merely predicting what was to come. She issued a spoiler, and a decade later, we’re watching it unfold as predicted right before our eyes.