Posted by Michael Barthel on 02/17/2011 at 1:30 PM Videos

The Popdust Files: diss tracks, lil kim, lil kim, mixtapes, nicki minaj, videos

As much as Lil Kim has a point about being an inspiration for Nicki Minaj, her response, in which she complains about Nicki’s popularity, has been frustrating. “Black Friday,” the title track from the entire diss mixtape she released on Tuesday, now has a video, and IDK you guys.

Kim has a right to be pissed off, as do her fellow female rappers. They have kinda gotten screwed! While watching VH1′s 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs Ever a while ago, it was hard not to notice that the “where are they now” bits for male rappers mostly involved musical careers while for female rappers the phrase “dental hygienist” came up a lot. That’s sad!

But the video, oh, geez. There are a lot of shots of old things Kim did, and while that’s fine, looking back like this doesn’t exactly win her any points in the pop arena. Even the idea of a diss track seems kind of outdated now. Nicki’s not the problem here—it’s everything else that’s made Kim essentially obsolete. Kim clearly sees Nicki’s prominence as something of an opportunity, but it would be nice if she took that opportunity and decided to raise her game and really compete, to bring something new to the table. Instead, she’s just issuing a list of grievances. Nicki’s doing something really innovative with her high style, but Kim’s still stuck in New York, riding around in black and white, trying to look hard when “hard” isn’t even the thing anymore. You just want to give her a hug.