Rapper Kanye West Claims “Rihanna Was the Best Thing to Happen to Beyoncé” Rapper Believes Singer Contributed To Beyonce’s Success

The power of Beyoncé and the “Beyhive” has grown over the years, leaving the superstar with one of the most rabid “stan” bases in history. She’s one of the few pop stars that have been able to wield their fandom to their benefit, with another being Rihanna and her “Navy.” In a resurfaced interview, Kanye West said Queen Bey had Rihanna to thank for a seeming leap her career took.

I VOTED 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/hlgIJUST4x

— ye (@kanyewest) November 3, 2020

A lot of successful women artists have complained about how the music industry likes to pit women against each other, in order for marketing and profit purposes. When a producer like Kanye makes statements like this, it rings true especially. Singer Keri Hilson has seen her career affected by being pit against another artist like Beyoncé and spoke on it recently.

Citing her youth, excitement at the opportunity to do what she loved and being under the control of her record label all lead Keri to depression and unhappiness – especially when they tried to pit her against Beyoncè for press.

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A post shared by keri hilson (@kerihilson) on Nov 2, 2020 at 8:07pm PST

The lyrics from the song at the time read as follows: “I ain’t tryin to start some mess /There’s just somethin on my chest that I need to get off / Cause you turnin me off / Your vision cloudy if you think that you’re the best / You can dance she can sing but she need to move it to the left / She needs to go have some babies / she need to sit down, she fake / Them other chicks ain’t even worth my time to talk about.”

Host Claudia Jordan interviewed a resurging Hilson for her Fox Soul show Out Loud with Claudia Jordan and asked her a whole host of questions as it seems Keri Hilson is finally ready to return to the spotlight of the music business. At the top of her mind was Hilson’s beef with Beyoncé and Ciara from the late 2000’s.

“No one could ever compare to Beyonce, let’s just say the name that we’re discussing. No one could compare, no one will for a very, very, very long time and that was never my aim.” Keri shared that she didn’t write the lyrics that eventually made the remix, and that drama was never a part of who she was.

“I had to pay the penalty and then I’m caught like do I tell the truth do I expose them early in my career? I’m super young, super new, this is my first album. I’m so excited it just soiled my whole dream.”

In a resurfaced news item, Kanye West did what the industry tends to do to women and ended up pitting two Black artists against each other. West compared Beyoncé and Rhianna’s careers to a room full of people during a listening party for his album 808’s and Heartbreak, using himself as a marker for who he deemed that he would work with.

Kanye was asked during a Q&A session after the playing of the then-new “Love Lockdown” single why he had gone with the song as a single. Kanye responded, “‘This is a wakeup call … people in music get comfortable…Rappers get comfortable.” He then used the biggest pop stars in music in 2008 to drive his point home.

Kanye believed that Rihanna’s presence in music and outsized success is what compelled Beyoncé to change her sound and release what would become a monster single, “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).”

“Rihanna was the best thing to happen to Beyonce.”