Lauryn Hill Releases Summer Jam Statement, Sides With Nicki Minaj

Monday afternoon, the day after the Hot 97 vs Nicki Minaj battle ensued, Lauryn Hill took to twitter to clarify why she joined the stage with Nas and if she initially had plans to perform with Minaj on stage. She explained:

“No disrespect to Nicki, but I need to clear up an inaccuracy. I was not scheduled to be a special guest on her set at Summer Jam, I was invited by Nas to perform with him. I don’t have details on exactly what transpired between the station and the artists, but I do support artists standing by their beliefs, and walking with integrity. We have to find a better way to commercially exploit music, while giving artists their proper respect. This cannot be done while taking their contributions for granted, or trying to control the scope of their growth and power through threats and fear tactics. We can do better than this, there is a better way, or else ‘we’ (the proverbial we) find ourselves in danger of being hypocrites!!!”

Nicki responded to L-Boogie,

Thank u Lauryn. Nas was coming out on my set, u were coming out 2 perform w/him. That was within my set that was going 2 continue w/foxy. Coming from Lauryn it means the world. No one deserves this treatment. We’re all out here working. Have respect for your guests.#thatsall

Meanwhile, rumor has it that Nicki Minaj is scheduled to call into Funk Master Flex’s show on Hot 97 Monday evening. Stay tuned. BTW, here’s a snippet of some of the performers from last night:

[youtube width=”590″ height=”415″]http://youtu.be/t_ybLtVODB4[/youtube]