Foxy Brown Speaks on Lil Kim and Nicki Minaj, Coming Out With New 2-Disc Album, Fashion Week Controversy and More

Foxy Brown recently sat down with Billboard to discuss some hot topics in music right now. First and foremost being the ongoing fued between fellow femcees, Nicki Minaj and Lil Kim. Fox is no stranger to Lil Kim beef, as the two have gone at it since almost the start of their careers over a decade ago. Even in a recent track Fox Boogie put out, she makes a few comments toward Kim. After the jump, find out why she’s #TeamMinaj, some info on her upcoming album and what really went down at Fashion Week (when she allegedly locked herself in a bathroom and wouldn’t come out because they wouldn’t let her perform).

@MarisaMendez

Billboard: Why are people saying that you were forced out of Indashio’s after-party?

Foxy Brown: I don’t know how any rumors got started. Indashio is a personal friend of mine — I’m his biggest supporter, he’s my biggest supporter…It was all about me coming to support one of my closest friends in fashion. And when I got there, he dragged me in, and we were falling all over, happy. Happy, not intoxicated, at all. I’m not even a drinker. And we never locked ourselves in the bathroom; people were coming in and out.

They’re saying I was physically escorted out of the building by security, that I had this huge fight, I was intoxicated, falling all over. And there’s not one picture, one photo from any of the club-goers, nothing. Not only that — it took six days for this quote-unquote “breaking story” to surface? Does that make sense?

Why do you think you’ve become a magnet for rumors?

I was watching something about Hillary Clinton one day — she had an interview, I think, on “Dateline” — and they said, “Hillary, why is it that you respond to everything they’ve said about you in the press?” And she said, “Simply because as a celebrity or a public figure, when something is written about you negatively, and you don’t respond, it becomes part of your legacy.”…Usually a lot of shit that’s written, it’s like, “Whatever, we’re not even addressing it.” But this was important because of what we’re doing in the future. Indy is designing the Foxy collection of dresses, and we’re about to do so much for fashion.

You also released the track “Massacre” last month, which addressed the Lil Kim-Nicki Minaj feud. What do you think about that situation?

Nicki has always been cool with me. She and I have something online I did for her — it was a video shoot with Lil Wayne and Rick Ross, [when] she wasn’t signed yet. And she was like, “Foxy is the first female artist who ever embraced me.” She was classy; she was articulate. I’m so proud of her.

Of course, people everywhere clearly are saying, “She wants to be Foxy, she wants to be Kim.” Everybody’s going to say that. But do I think she’s doing an incredible job at branding herself? Yes, I do. When you’re an icon in the music business…like Mary J. Blige. Keyshia Cole came out after her, [but] you didn’t hear Mary J. Blige starting a beef with her just because they compared [Keyshia to] her. Mary J. Blige stayed clean. She does what she does, and I do what I do.

Meanwhile, Lil Kim stays outspoken.

Had she let the people say, “Oh [Nicki], you’re trying to be Kim, you’re a fake Kim,” then it doesn’t come directly from her. But when you’re using that as a platform to bring your new album out, that’s like, “Oh my God, wait a minute.” I don’t condone it at all; I don’t think it’s cute.

Nicki clearly drew from both Kim and me. And she hasn’t been disrespectful to me in any way — I haven’t heard her be disrespectful toward anybody else but Kim. And at some point, it’s like, O.K., Kim, you’ve had a problem with Foxy, you’ve had a problem with Nicki, you’ve had a problem with Faith [Evans], with Charli [Baltimore], with everybody. It’s like, enough already. I choose to stay out of it. Put out great music, and that’s that.

And you’re prepping new music yourself, right?

The new album! “Black Roses.” I’m in the studio every night, slaving. It’s going to be the first double CD from any female rapper in history, so it’s going to be really big. One side is going to be straight hip-hop and hardcore records, and a couple big radio joints, and then the other side is dancehall rock… I personally want it to drop around August or September