If you thought the Nicki Minaj and Lil Kim discourse couldn’t get any more heated, wait until you hear Yo-Yo’s solution. During a sit-down with Baller Alert, the rap legend was asked the question that ends friendships and lights up comment sections: who’s on your female rap Mount Rushmore? Her answer had a twist nobody saw coming, and it might be the most diplomatic take the beef has ever gotten.
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Yo-Yo didn’t take the question lightly.“That’s so hard to say,” she admitted, before revealing she’d actually been prepping her answer ahead of time. “I said I was gonna try to get my top 4 if I’m gonna be doing interviews because I knew that was gonna be like the number one.” Her criteria wasn’t about who sold the most records; it was about who changed the game for the generation that came after them.
Fresh off a Milwaukee show with Rapsody, Yo-Yo made sure to give her flowers first, even outside the official four.
“When it comes to them lyrics, a beast,” she said of Rapsody. “Oh my God, Rapsody is a beast.”
The first name off her tongue was Lauryn Hill, and the reasoning was pure reverence.
“Lauryn Hill changed the game,” Yo-Yo said. “She was able to speak to music from her heart, and say some things that moved the people. She gave some love to hip-hop, because it’s that happy medium that we all search for.” She singled out “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” as one of the rare full albums from a female artist she’s listened to start to finish.
Here’s where things get interesting, and where Yo-Yo dropped the take that’s about to run through the comments. Instead of picking a side in one of hip-hop’s most infamous rivalries, she put both queens on the same slot.
You gotta give it to Lil’ Kim. I mean, Lil’ Kim came in the game, and when Lil’ Kim came in the game, I mean, I would put her forward slash her with Nicki,” Yo-Yo said. “Even though I know they’re beefing and they have their beef, I would put them kind of like in the same lane. If I could split her face.”
She was quick to give each artist credit on her own terms rather than pitting them against each other.
“Nicki, Kim did one thing, and Nicki came in a whole other generation and stood in line for a long time by herself and commanded, you know, even though it was what it was, she did something different.”
It’s a rare moment of peace in a rivalry that’s dominated headlines and Twitter fingers for years, and it’s coming from someone who watched both eras unfold from inside the culture.
For her third pick, Yo-Yo went back to the source, literally the reason she picked up a mic in the first place.
Roxanne Shanté, I love Roxanne Shanté,” she said, though she gave a commercial nod to Salt-N-Pepa in the same breath for everything they’ve accomplished.
But it’s Shanté’s history-making battle that sealed her spot.
“When she came out back in the days and went up against UTFO, that was the first time girls had really battled a guy,” Yo-Yo said. “I wanted to rap because of Roxanne Shanté.”
Yo-Yo wasn’t ready to lock in her fourth face just yet, though she made it clear she’s paying attention to the current generation.
“I love Latto, just to say I love Latto,” she said. “But I gotta think of somebody, and I haven’t really got it yet. I’m gonna work on my roster.”
What stands out most about Yo-Yo’s Mount Rushmore isn’t just who made it; it’s how she got there. Rather than forcing a winner between Nicki and Kim, she found a way to honor what each of them uniquely brought to hip-hop. It’s the kind of take that respects three decades of watching the culture evolve from the inside, and it’s bound to get people talking.
So, Lauryn Hill, a shared face for Lil’ Kim and Nicki Minaj, and Roxanne Shanté, with one spot still open.
Do you agree with Yo-Yo’s Mount Rushmore, or is she missing someone? Sound off in the comments.
