Did Nicki Minaj Have Shade Thrown By Missy Elliot? Will Minaj Strike Back? [Video]

Did Missy Elliot throw shade at Nicki Minaj? Not according to Missy herself.

In an interview with Billboard magazine to promote her new single, “WTF (Where They From?),” Missy Elliot might have thrown shade at Nicki when she declared, “Unfortunately, breaking news, there is only one Missy.” She also insisted that most songs she hears these days “sound alike,” according to Perez Hilton.

.@NICKIMINAJ slaying the AMAs red carpet last year. #AMAs pic.twitter.com/JZNtAmI1vo

— Nicki Minaj News (@NickiReigns) November 22, 2015

While Missy admits there “are some great records out there,” the rapper also points out that “it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to hear that a lot of songs sound alike.” Was she referring to Nicki Minaj and her signature sound?

During the interview, the rapper also learned that Nicki Minaj is influenced by her, and “mock-innocently” replied, “Oh, she is?”

According to VH-1 however, Missy meant no disrespect toward Nicki, and people are “twisting her words.” Elliot, who will receive the Innovator award at Billboard’s Women in Music event, also pointed out in the interview that there’s “room for so many” female artists, and wants there to be more women in hip hop.

“It’s important,” Missy added, that artists like Nicki Minaj have a place in the spotlight.

Elliot even took to Twitter to squash the controversy, writing that she is “about uplifting people positive energy,” confessing that “it’s hard enough out here 4 artist[s]” like Nicki Minaj. Elliot then explained that there is “no need” to pit her and Minaj against each other.

I'm about uplifting people positive energy it's hard enough out here 4 artist no need to put us against each other?????

— Missy Elliott (@MissyElliott) November 19, 2015

Minaj is not without her own controversy, and made headlines when she had a very public feud with Miley Cyrus last summer over the VMA awards. After Cyrus said that Nicki Minaj was “not too kind” over Twitter in a New York Times article about the MTV VMA nominations, Minaj has explained why she called out Cyrus on stage as she accepted the award for best hip-hop video at the VMAs.

At the time, Minaj said, the “fact that you feel upset about me speaking on something that affects black women makes me feel like you have some big balls,” reported People magazine. Nicki continued, accusing Cyrus of insensitivity, to explain that as an artist who is “in videos with black men, and…bringing out black women on your stages,” Miley Cyrus does not “want to know how black women feel about something that’s so important.”

According to Nicki Minaj, Miley should have been more supportive of the rapper’s criticisms, telling Cyrus that “you can’t want the good without the bad,” reported People. Minaj explained further.

“If you want to enjoy our culture and our lifestyle, bond with us, dance with us, have fun with us, twerk with us, rap with us, then you should also want to know what affects us, what is bothering us, what we feel is unfair to us. You shouldn’t not want to know that.”

Press play as @NickiMinaj slays Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise: https://t.co/x8rKE5JsL4 ? pic.twitter.com/zdNSIKycK7

— i-D (@i_D) November 22, 2015

During the same controversy, Minaj also briefly sparked a Twitter feud with Taylor Swift, who took the rapper’s criticisms of the VMA nominations personally. The spat was quickly cleared up, as both Minaj and Swift agreed they support each other, after clarifying that Minaj was not throwing shade at Swift.

Nicki Minaj also shared her love/hate relationship with social media, intimating that even though she has over 35 million followers on Instagram, she still feels insecure about sharing personal photos on Instagram, “where everyone is freaking drop-dead gorgeous,” reported People.

Minaj confessed that as a young girl, she was not confident about her looks, explaining that she wants “to take steps to become more aware of who I am, what I like or dislike about my body” as she ages.

Her outlook on relationships has also evolved, People reported. According to Nicki, ” women stay whether a man’s rich or poor,” explaining that at one time she thought “a woman not having her money as the biggest curse.” Now, she knows better. Remaining in bad relationships are “just a weakness.”

Minaj insists that her career is most important to her, explaining that since she was 15-years-old, she “came out of one relationship and went into another relationship.” Each man told her she did not “have to work that much,” but according to Minaj, “I can’t stop working, because it’s bigger than work to me. It’s having a purpose outside any man.”

[Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images]