Member Since: 10/1/2011
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Nicki is the hardest working rapper alive.
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For the final installment of this series, below, I talked with Debra Antney, founder and CEO of Mizay Entertainment management company, star on Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta, mother of Waka Flocka Flame, and former manager to Nicki Minaj (and Gucci Mane). Antney specifically worked with Minaj on 2009’s stellar Beam Me Up Scotty mixtape, which helped Minaj ascend to the highest echelons of rap.
What kinds of things did you have to focus on improving when Nicki first moved to Atlanta to start working with you?
[Debra Antney: Her self-esteem. She really went through a lot of stuff—trust factors and all those kinds of little things. The one thing she wanted to do was sing, so I placed her with Jan Smith to get some vocal training. I wanted to see where she was and actually allow her to feel comfortable with her vocals.
And the result of all that was Beam Me Up Scotty?
Yeah, it was the illest. Even though it was a mixtape, it opened up doors for her.
That mixtape is incredible. Were there specific kinds of challenges you had to deal with working with a woman rapper?
Nicki has made it hard for me to deal with other women. Her focus was phenomenal. That bar is raised so high because of what she did and her work ethic. There wasn’t no partying, there wasn’t no drugs, there wasn’t no guys, there wasn’t none of that. Wasn’t no mess, she wasn’t on a bunch of meds, she wasn’t into drama. She worked. Most girls when they get into the game, they fight with they boyfriends. That’s it—no work. Even her trippin’ parts was OK with me because by that time she had became spoiled. But I have nothing negative to say about working with her. The problem is that other females have it hard with me, now. They really go through hell because she raised the bar really high.
So you expect more from people.
Nicki was always a very pretty girl. She had a lot of people who wanted her then. She was like new meat coming down here, but nothing deterred her away from where she wanted to be. It was so real when she said in her song, “It’s not about who you know, it’s not about your looks, it’s not about anything. It’s about who want it.” She said to me, “Deb, I want it.” And then in her record she said, “I want it the most.” That was real. By any means necessary, she was going to do it. There was a time when everybody kept turning her down. We went to New York and she sat against the wall and was like “Why, Deb, why?” And I said, “Get up. What do you want to do?” She’s like, “I want this.” And I was like, “How bad do you want this? What are you willing to sacrifice?” And she looked at me and she said, “I want this, Deb.” She wanted it the most and she did it. From that time on there was no looking back. She did it. Oh god, that just brought tears to my eyes.
I’m curious about female rappers in general too. What are some of the obstacles they face trying to break in and prove themselves?
Not knowing who they are—that’s the biggest thing. The next thing is going in and people not capturing who they are and building from there. Nicki was dope for being who she was. There was nothing else placed in her to make her be somebody else. All the many characters she had inside of her were her. She was like my Barbie, my little Harajuku—she was all these different people. She was my Marilyn Monroe and my baby boo. All of the greatest women that you can think of—from the sexiest to whoever—she was all of those people rolled up in one. She was always going to be every women and she’s proven that.
When you say “they” do you mean labels?
Yeah, they say let’s find somebody that we can fit in and see if we can squeeze our way in there. I wouldn’t just look at Iggy. Iggy can rap, so that makes her hop over on to the urban side. I think Iggy’s got it, but she needs more training. She’s not ready to come up against Nicki Minaj. That’s not a good fighting match. I wouldn’t even pay to see that. They have to come at Nicki a lot stronger than Iggy Azalea. Iggy can come in and she can run her own lane and do her own thing, but she’s not strong enough for Nicki.
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Full article here: http://m.vice.com/read/nicki-minajs-...pper-alive-666
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