It’s no secret that Lil Wayne admires Nicki Minaj. After all, he was the one who discovered the megastar rapstress.

It’s perhaps that fondness that brought him to pen a short letter about Minaj for TIME recently. During the letter, he called Nicki an “icon” and praised her as one of the best to ever do it, even as her career progresses.

“She’s an icon, a boss and a role model to all these young girls out here on how to do it the right way,” he wrote. “Her work ethic speaks volumes and has yielded these results. The scary thing is she’s still going. Ha! Nicki Minaj will go down as one of the best to do it in the history of music.”

Weezy also says she’s not just one of the best female rappers, but one of the best out right now, period.

“When I heard the first two and four bars, it wasn’t even about her rapping better than any female rapper,” he wrote. “It was about, man, she’s rapping better than other rappers – period.”

Lil Wayne’s been doing press in order to promote his recently released collaborative ColleGrove album with 2 Chainz. Read the full letter here.

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