Queen Latifah thinks female rappers need to unite.
The 52-year-old star has urged female rappers to put their “ego” to one side and to work together more often.
The rap icon – who released her debut album, ‘All Hail the Queen’, in 1989 – said: “I would say to you, now is the time for you to do whatever you want with your career because we had that done to us. A lot of crews kind of claimed, like, the one female in the group and wouldn’t kind of let us all work with each other sometimes.
“Then the smart ones, of course, we got to jump on each other’s records and make smash hit music and elevate the whole genre.
“So, if you have the power or if you want to work with somebody go work with them. It’s all ego … and most of the time it’s not our ego it’s somebody else’s ego competing against someone else’s and we’re just the pawns.”
The ‘U.N.I.T.Y.’ hitmaker urged young stars to seize control of their own careers.
She told E! News: “Don’t be a pawn, control your career, speak from the heart, say what you want to say, represent us and let’s go. Let’s get this.”
Meanwhile, Cardi B previously claimed that she was actually happier before finding fame and success.
The 30-year-old rap star – who is one of the best-selling artists in the world – explained: “One positive thing is that, my family, whatever they want, they get. Everything that I want to buy, I can get. I don’t have to worry so much about my future.
“One negative thing is that, even though I’m happy, I feel like I was a little bit happier two or three years ago when I had less money.
“I had less people who had opinions about my life. I felt like my life was mine.
“Now I feel like I don’t even own my life. I feel like the world owns me.”