BY: Walker
Published 53 seconds ago
Monica Lewinsky jokingly asked Halle Berry if she’s interested in trading places as hip-hop’s lyrical muse.
The moment unfolded after Berry, 57, responded to a viral post tallying how frequently her name has been dropped in rap songs over the decades.
Berry, whose career has spanned Oscar-winning performances and pop culture icon status, embraced the attention with grace. “And I appreciate each rap song reference,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “What are you guys’ favorite?” The post sparked a wave of replies, celebrating her presence in tracks by artists like Kanye West, J. Cole, and Kendrick Lamar.
Then, Monica Lewinsky entered the chat.
“Wanna trade?!?” the 51-year-old activist quipped, adding a cheeky winking emoji. Her reply nodded to the less flattering—and far more loaded—rap references she’s garnered since her affair with President Bill Clinton became global news in the late ’90s.
Unlike Berry, whose name often symbolizes beauty and allure in lyrics, Lewinsky’s legacy in rap is tied to scandal and double entendre. During a 2015 TED Talk, she guessed around 40 songs had mentioned her.
But a more thorough report by The Cut that same year found closer to 128, excluding most remixes. Her name has appeared in lyrics by Beyoncé (“Partition”), Eminem (“Rap God”), and Nicki Minaj (“Itty Bitty Piggy”), often in crude or explicit contexts.
Halle Berry, by contrast, once said in a Hot Ones interview that she considers every musical shout-out special. “I think of these references like my children,” she told host Sean Evans. “There’s no way I could pick one. I love them all.”
While the lyrical nods carry different cultural weight, Lewinsky’s humorous tone signaled self-awareness rather than self-pity—a way to reclaim the narrative, even in jest. As the exchange circulated widely online, fans noted the contrast in how two women, both iconic in very different ways, have been immortalized in bars across generations.
via: Hot 97
