Nicki Minaj, Kanye West.Photo: Daniele Venturelli/WireImage; Gotham/GC Images
DidNicki Minajthrow shade at Kanye West?
During her headlining performance at the 2022Essence Festival of Culturein New Orleans on Friday, Minaj instructed her DJ to stop playing her West collaboration “Monster” and appeared to call the Chicago-born rapper a “clown.”
“A monster though! A monster though! But we don’t f— with clowns,” a grinning Minajtold fans after the song stopped playing. She then changed the subject and said she wanted to “give a shout-out to New Orleans” in lieu of performing the two-time Platinum-certified hit.
In addition to “Monster,” Minaj and West, 45, collaborated on anotherMy Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasytrack titled “Dark Fantasy,” and he appeared on “Blazin” from herPink Fridayalbum the same year. They’ve since worked together on West’s 2018 track “Violent Crimes,” as well as a collaboration with controversial rapper 6ix9ine titled “MAMA.”
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Minaj and West also teamed up a song for West’s scrappedYandhialbum titled “New Body,” which leaked online after he previewed it during a listening session withThe Faderin September 2018. The song and its studio session were previewed during a 2019 episode ofKeeping Up with the Kardashians, though “New Body” was later scrapped, as West decided to go in a gospel direction for his project,Jesus Is King.
“What’s funny is that I did a song with Kanye, that he now wants to transform into a gospel song,” Minaj toldThe Shade Roomin October 2019. “I done wrote three different verses chile, and I don’t know. We ain’t seeing eye to eye on it. I don’t know, but of course, I love and respect Kanye, and Kim, we’ll see what happens with that.”
A clip from the song wentviral on TikTokin April 2020, and Minaj’s fans then trended #ReleaseNewBody on social media. In June of the same year, Minajasked her followersto urge West and his then-wifeKim Kardashian, 41, to release the track.
Nicki Minaj.Getty
Part of the “New Body” music video leaked in July 2020, and West announced the song would be included on hisDondaalbum, though it didn’t end up making the album’s final track listing and remains unreleased.
The song’s lack of release didn’t seem to spark a feud between the two artists, as they later attempted to collaborate on a collaboration for West’s Yeezy fashion brand. However, Minajtold radio host Joe Budden the project was scrappedbecause he felt Kardashian “probably wouldn’t love” its concept.
She recalled telling West, “Hey look, I’m about to do something and I just wanted to make sure I spoke to you first,” and claimed he responded, “‘Well, if I did something with you, I think my wife probably wouldn’t love that idea because I should be giving that to my wife instead. If I was doing a female version of the Yeezys or whatever, it should probably go to my wife.'”
Minaj said the incident led her to wonder why a figure who “was very vocal about the fashion industry not letting him in at one time” would bar another Black musician from entering the field.
She continued, “So if a Black female rapper who you know has just shown herself to be sellable in that space — and this is not from Joe Schmoe from down the block this is from Fendi saying, ‘Right, all of these things fall right off the shelf’ — then when I come to you as a Black man that I look up to, I’m doing that because you inspired me, because you said the fashion industry didn’t want to let us in, even though we’re so influential.”
Their relationship wasn’t completely severed after the debacle, as Minaj thanked Yeezy and its parent brand, Adidas, onInstagramfor sending her son several pairs of children’s Yeezy shoes in October 2020 following his birth.
On Friday,Cardi B— who has had along public feudwith Minaj — released her new singlesingle “Hot S—,“featuring none other than West.
source: people.com
