Promoting her upcoming album The Pink Print, Nicki Minaj spoke with DJ Semtex on BBC 1Xtra and explained her own anticipation for the body of work. While she has yet to announce an official release date, Minaj shared that she will be releasing new music in the coming weeks.
“I’m super excited about the music that I have in store for people,” she said. “I have some stuff coming out in the next couple weeks that are gonna blow people’s minds. I’m just gearing up for this album. I took my time with the album. I’ve never felt better to be honest.”
Speaking about the motivation behind the album’s title, Nicki Minaj started by mentioning a recent step away from the industry.
“I think sometimes it’s good to deactivate yourself from the machine of the industry,” she said. “I think I did that. I got enough time to really just focus and get a new perspective on who I was in relation to the industry, in relation to rap, and all of that. I am a lot more confident. This album that I’m working on is called The Pink Print. Of course I named it The Pink Print and of course Jay has had his Blueprint albums. That’s what I feel like this album is gonna be. I really feel like this album will be a blueprint for female rappers to come. That alone should tell you how confident I am about the music.”
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While on the show, the Pink Friday rapper also shared coming together with Lil Herb for the original version of “Chi-Raq.”
“I contacted Lil Herb from Chicago,” she said. “He had a record out that was doing that flow that he’s doing on the hook. I was feeling the flow that he did on that song. We did an original song. That ‘Chi-Raq’ beat is my beat. Boi-1da did that beat for me and I rapped on it and then I called Lil Herb like, ‘Yo, I’m feeling you. I love your style. I love your movement. Come down to L.A. and lay a new verse on this song.’
“I knew the shit was hot,” she added. “I knew the beat was hot…I didn’t really expect that many—I’m telling you, a lot of people remade that song. Like people did videos to that song. We don’t even have a video to that, and I had the original version.”
“The Game bodied it,” Minaj said of her favorite remix. “He kinda surprised me. That was one of the most lyrical Game verses I heard in years. I didn’t really expect him to go that crazy on it. That was one that really stood out to me. He was mad. Somebody made him mad or something.”
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Later in the interview, Nicki Minaj spoke on her working relationship with Lil Wayne and their continued chemistry.
“One of the biggest motivators in my career was just watching Wayne’s work ethic when I first came in the game,” she said. “I would see him go so hard, and do so many features, and so many mixtapes, and do so many albums. Whether he and I are on a song or not, we always have this insane connection that I can’t explain…You gotta play that ‘Sweet Dreams’ Beyonce freestyle, you gotta play when me and Wayne did ‘Go Hard.’ People need to be reminded that that has not been done since…We were like animated superheroes. When we were doing that, it was not being done, and it has not been done since.”
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