Nicki Minaj has been hit the press circuit hard for her upcoming third album, The Pink Print. Her latest feature is on the cover of The Fader.
In the interview, she talks details on the upcoming album and how she wants to make it an iconic rap effort. She also clarifies her beef-inducing BET Awards speech and reflects on her path to stardom, including her decision to go back to her rap roots after a very successful pop career with two platinum-selling albums.
Here's what we learned...
1. The album is set to feature Dr. Luke, Ester Dean, Boi-1da, and Detail. She's also working on getting Rihanna and Drake on the record, though she calls the latter "unpredictable."
2. She has learned over the course of her career when to talk and when to keep things to herself. "I think early on in my career, I was... I was... just a little bit crazy. I took everything personally. That's just not good, and it's not healthy. I think one of my best attributes now, as a businesswoman and an artist and a professional person, is being able to think before I speak. I've learned that everything I think doesn't necessarily need to be stated."
3. She says her BET Awards Speech wasn't about throwing shade at Iggy Azalea. "My point of saying what I said was that women need to have a perspective. If we're out here saying that we're so confident, and we're so this and so that, but we don't even trust ourselves to write down our own thoughts and spit it on a beat? It just doesn't add up. I knew those were Lauryn's words [on The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill], and it made me fall in love with her mind."
4. She prefers living in Los Angeles, but still considers New York as her lineage. "LA makes me feel good inside. New York is too cold, too rainy, too compact. I ain't got time for all of that, child."
5.She grapples with the sacrifices she has made with her career and gets emotional when she thinks about leaving her family behind. "One day [my younger brother] asked my mother, 'Do you ever think there'll come a time we all live in the same house again, and Onika will be back and she'll have her room, and I'll have my room? And it just broke my heart. I don't want to get emotional. I just miss them. Every time I talk about them, I get emotional."
6. She doesn't see Lil Wayne as a peer but more as a mentor. "But I don't think I'll ever feel like he's my peer because of how much he's done for me. I'll always think of him like...Like the king."
7. She was surprised that her success in pop would make people discredit her rap roots. "I felt like my pop music made me have to retell my story. My credibility as an MC-I never thought I would have to explain that. I thought it was so evident that I belonged here [in hip-hop]."
8. However, she is glad she was forced to reinvent herself. "Looking back now, I love that I was pushed to reinvent myself because when I sit back and I really look, I need hip-hop, and hip-hop needs me."
9. She doesn't remember all of her early verses and songs." I did so many verses around that time, and sometimes I really don't remember."
10. She wants to do a tour of only old mixtape material, but is afraid it will alienate her new fans. "But it's hard. No matter what, you kind of need the people who know you from the mainstream to fill those venues ...then my fans reminded me [when she considered scaling down the venue], 'We can't all fit in the club! We're going to be heartbroken. We're going to be fighting.'"
11. She isn't focused on acting but won't say no to any business venture outside of music because she wants to achieve greater visibility for young black women in pop culture. "But every time I do a business venture or something that isn't the norm for a female rapper, I pat myself on the back. It's important that corporate America can see a young black woman being able to sell things outside of music."
12. She has a forthcoming deal with the Home Shopping Network that she is excited about. "A female rapper! With HSN!"
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