Yes, you read the title right. After all the beefing, the shot-sending, the tweets, the boycotts, the rants…Nicki Minaj will be calling into Funk Flex’s show tonight to address it ALL head-on. After the jump, I’ll break down the ENTIRE beef for you guys, from start to [what may be] finish.
On August 10th, 2009 at 10:25pm…Funk Flex spun his very first Nicki Minaj record. This would go on to prove a great relationship, with Flex and Hot 97 as a whole supporting the budding Queens, NY artist in all of her endeavors. Nicki was always appreciative of this, and gave Hot 97 an equal amount of love back. When her debut album Pink Friday dropped in 2010, the in-demand artist graced Angie Martinez with her bombshell interview addressing Lil Kim for the first time. She gave Funk Flex many an exclusive record to premiere, she appeared on Flex’s MTV2 show and did various club appearances with the station’s personalities.
Her second album’s singles started to release around the end of 2011 and the beginning of this year. Fans/critics noticed a change in her sound…there were a lot more “pop” or “crossover” records on this one, and many…including Hot 97 personality Peter Rosenberg…felt the NY raptress was selling out. Rosenberg stated his opinion on air back in February and was met with a LOT of controversy, though Nicki herself did not address it directly. In a majority of her interviews, she made sure to make a point that there were significantly MORE hip-hop records on this album than pop, and she became noticeably frustrated being pigeonholed as this pop artist now.
A few weeks later, Funk Flex nabbed an exclusive Nicki record that was set to be premiered by a rival station’s DJ, and this didn’t sit too well with her either. Strike 2 for Hot and Nicki. All was well, though, when she appeared on Flex’s show shortly after and the two cleared the situation up. However, she was still not pleased with the morning show for the “sellout” comments, no matter how cool she was with others. Regardless, she agreed to perform at arguably one of the most famous hip-hop shows in the world, Summer Jam.
Hours before her scheduled set, Minaj took to her Twitter to excitedly chat about the night’s performance. “History will be made @ Hot97 Summer Jam tonight. I really hope you’re there to witness it,” Nicki told her Barbz. However, Lil Wayne threw a monkey wrench in that shortly after when he tweeted “Young Money ain’t doing summer jam.” Wait…what happened?
Well, when Peter Rosenberg took the stage earlier at the Summer Jam pre-show (aka the Festival), he addressed the crowd with a not-so-pro-Nicki comment. “I see the real Hip-Hop heads sprinkled in here. I see them. I know there are some chicks here waiting to sing “Starships” later, I’m not talking to y’all right now. F*ck that bullsh*t. I’m here to talk about real Hip-Hop sh*t,” he said.
Word quickly got back to Wayne who flew into town just to be a surprise guest for Nicki’s set, and he made the decision to pull the plug. Nick had no choice but to stick by the man who made her who she is. “Wow. U n*ggaz just fucked up history. But the President has spoken. #YMCMB” she wrote. And just like that, YMCMB was no longer doing Summer Jam 2012.
Funk Flex filled in during Nicki’s scheduled 25 minute time slot (which was not the headliner, contrary to popular belief), and stood by his team as he ripped into his former associate.
“We ain’t f-ckin with commercial rappers no more! If you lost the f-ckin streets, its your fault! If you don’t go gold, it’s your fault! I’m dedicated to tearing you down! F-ck with me! We gon show you mama, you think you didn’t sell any records this time?”
On his Hot 97 show tonight, he planned to “ruin a career”. But it seems as though the bond between the famous radio DJ and platinum selling rapper proved to be a bit stronger than that, as Flex shocked the world with a tweet just a little while ago.
What will happen come Flex’s time slot at 7pm? Who knows, but one thing’s for sure: you don’t want to miss it. Hot97.com, iPhone app store, 97.1WQHT in the tri-state area…do what you gotta do!
