Taylor Swift Defends Nicki Minaj and Iggy Azalea's Songwriting Skills in New Interview

Successful songwriter Taylor Swift has jumped to the defense of Nicki Minaj and Iggy Azalea. The "Blank Space" singer (and occasional lip-sync-er) said she doesn't like when the public doubts the songwriting abilities of the two pop stars. Minaj and Azalea have both been accused using ghostwriters to pen their tunes.

"It's a little discouraging that females have to work so much harder to prove that they do their own things," she told Time. "I see Nicki Minaj and Iggy Azalea having to prove that they write their own raps or their own lyrics, and it makes me sad, because they shouldn't have to justify it."

Swift pointed out that her buddy, Ed Sheeran, is rarely accused of not writing his own songs. Even Swift herself has had to put up with people claiming she doesn't pen her own tunes. "In the beginning, I liked to think that we were all on the same playing field," she said. "And then it became pretty obvious to me that when you have people sort of questioning the validity of a female songwriter, or making it seem like it's somehow unacceptable to write songs about your real emotions-that it somehow makes you irrational and overemotional-seeing that over the years changed my view."

Minaj addressed her haters at the 2014 BET Awards in June. "What I want the world to know about Nicki Minaj, when you hear Nicki Minaj spit, Nicki Minaj wrote it," the "Anaconda" rapper said.

T.I. came to Azalea's aid after people said the male rapper wrote verses for the female star. "Iggy got her own ideas and thoughts that she presents to the world her own way," he said. "I couldn't write a lot of the shit she say, you know? I couldn't put her thoughts into words as articulate as she does."

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Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj, Iggy Azalea, Ed Sheeran, T.I.