Ed Lover Defends Nicki Minaj

Personalities Ed Lover and Dr. Dre both weighed in on the Nicki Minaj/Hot 97 controversy. Ed criticizes Minaj's detractors and said that hip hop needs to stop being hypocritical about pop success.

"You can't look at anybody that crosses over and achieves pop appeal as a sellout, because that's what you're trying to do when you put a record out," Ed Lover said. "So if Nicki Minaj ain't real hip-hop, then Public Enemy wasn't real hip-hop, then Run-DMC wasn't real hip-hop, then Eminem ain't real hip-hop."

Lover's former "Yo! MTV Raps" partner, Dr. Dre, was critical of Nicki cancelling her performance at Summer Jam following Hot 97 DJ Peter Rosenberg insulting her music onstage.

"First of all, Nicki Minaj was the only one who ruined 55,000 fans' expectations of the night. It has nothing to do with [Peter] Rosenberg. You go out there and you perform for your fans," said Dr. Dre. But Dre also acknowledged that Rosenberg was inappropriate. "We have too many what I call 'semi-super experts' who always try to redefine hip-hop from its infancy," he argued.