(Billboard) – Foxy Brown is weighing in on the bitter feud that escalated between Nicki Minaj and Lil Kim last week, after Lil Kim appeared to behead Minaj on the cover of her ‘Black Friday’ mixtape.
“When you’re using that as a platform to bring your new album out… I don’t condone it at all; I don’t think it’s cute,” Brown, who recently rapped “First a bitch wanna hate on Foxy/Ten years later now she hating on Minaj-y” on a new track dubbed “Massacre,” told Billboard.com.
Brown also spoke out about her own recent controversy, sparked by media reports that she was tossed from a Fashion Week after-party for being visibly intoxicated and locking herself in a bathroom. Brown and Indashio, the designer who hosted the party, both shot down the reports as completely untrue, saying that not only are they friends but that Indashio is currently planning a fashion line inspired by Brown.
“People try to provoke her. She can’t go to a party and enjoy herself without people making up stories,” says Indashio. “She literally can’t even go to the bathroom. She’s always being victimized by the press, and as her friend, I’ve got to have her back.”
Billboard: Why do you think you’ve become a magnet for rumours?
Foxy Brown: “I was watching something about Hillary Clinton one day — she had an interview, I think, on “Dateline” — and they said, ‘Hillary, why is it that you respond to everything they’ve said about you in the press?” And she said, “Simply because as a celebrity or a public figure, when something is written about you negatively, and you don’t respond, it becomes part of your legacy.’…Usually a lot of shit that’s written, it’s like, ‘Whatever, we’re not even addressing it.’ But this was important because of what we’re doing in the future. Indy is designing the Foxy collection of dresses, and we’re about to do so much for fashion.”
Billboard:
You also released the track “Massacre” last month, which addressed the Lil Kim-Nicki Minaj feud. What do you think about that situation?
Foxy Brown: “Nicki has always been cool with me. She and I have something online I did for her — it was a video shoot with Lil Wayne and Rick Ross, she wasn’t signed yet. And she was like, ‘Foxy is the first female artist who ever embraced me.’ She was classy; she was articulate. I’m so proud of her.
“Of course, people everywhere clearly are saying, ‘She wants to be Foxy, she wants to be Kim.’ Everybody’s going to say that. But do I think she’s doing an incredible job at branding herself? Yes, I do. When you’re an icon in the music business…like Mary J. Blige. Keyshia Cole came out after her, you didn’t hear Mary J. Blige starting a beef with her just because they compared her. Mary J. Blige stayed clean. She does what she does, and I do what I do.
Billboard: Meanwhile, Lil Kim stays outspoken
Foxy Brown: “Had she let the people say, ‘Oh, you’re trying to be Kim, you’re a fake Kim,’ then it doesn’t come directly from her. But when you’re using that as a platform to bring your new album out, that’s like, ‘Oh my God, wait a minute.’ I don’t condone it at all; I don’t think it’s cute.
“Nicki clearly drew from both Kim and me. And she hasn’t been disrespectful to me in any way — I haven’t heard her be disrespectful toward anybody else but Kim. And at some point, it’s like, ‘OK, Kim, you’ve had a problem with Foxy, you’ve had a problem with Nicki, you’ve had a problem with Faith, with Charli, with everybody. It’s like, enough already.’ I choose to stay out of it. Put out great music, and that’s that.
Billboard: And you’re prepping new music yourself, right?
Foxy Brown: “The new album! ‘Black Roses’. I’m in the studio every night, slaving. It’s going to be the first double CD from any female rapper in history, so it’s going to be really big. One side is going to be straight hip-hop and hardcore records, and a couple big radio joints, and then the other side is dancehall rock…I personally want it to drop around August or September.”
