Yesterday, Kanye West gave a surprise lecture at Oxford University.
He spoke about a number of different things, from fashion to art and even the abstract idea of utopia.
But he also had some questionable thoughts about Nicki Minaj out rapping him on "Monster" from his 2010 album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
One of the most memorable things about MBDTF was Nicki Minaj, and the fact that she kicked my ass, on my own song, on one of the best albums…the best album – I'm just saying what the critics said – of the last 25 years. The best album of the past 25 years that I spent a year and a half making, out there. I was exiled from my country, it was a personal exile, but exile.
"To come back and deliver my magnum opus of a work, and to be outshined…to be beat by a girl, basically," he said.
While his remarks were clearly intended to compliment Nicki, they also reinforce an unfortunate, sexist paradigm.
What Kanye seems to have the most trouble with isn't the fact that he was out rapped on a hit single on his own album. In fact, in this same Oxford lecture he takes the time to acknowledge how Drake has the "number one spot" and how he "blows everyone out of the water." What he verbally addresses and takes up an issue with is that he was "outshined by a girl, basically."