I Wanna Believe

Rob Markman: I need everybody sit down. Everybody sit down. Everybody sit down. Please give a welcome to the lyrical queen, the genius herself, Miss Nicki Minaj. I'm good how you doing babe? Nicki Minaj: You guys I love you so fucking much. Thank you so much for being here y'all. I really freaking love you and appreciate you. I know it's late and I'm sorry to keep you waiting. I literally just left a video shoot and now I have to go back to a different shoot. Maybe you guys will see one tomorrow I'm try. Rob Markman: Uh-oh. Nicki Minaj: But I just really, really, really appreciate your presence tonight and I wanna thank Rob for doing this. I had no clue that other things got added. I had no clue the thing I just had to do. Rob Markman: Right. Nicki Minaj: Completely did not know. It's been such a whirlwind for the last couple days. So just make some noise for him y'all cause he really— Rob Markman: Love, love, love. And make some noise for yourselves cause y'all been patient— Nicki Minaj: Did you guys— Rob Markman: Peaceful Nicki Minaj: Did you guys eat? Wait okay. Wait you guys, we need to get— Rob Markman: It was rough. Nicki Minaj: We need to get them some food. Rob Markman: We'll get on that. Nicki Minaj: So what is close around here that we can buy. Mcdonalds? Ew Rob Markman: Number two with the mac sauce. Come on! Miss genius we gone talk about these lyrics. Nicki Minaj: I want some hot sauce and— Rob Markman: Oh Lord. Nicki Minaj: Four wings and some french fries, hot sauce— Alright okay. Okay now. No but honestly you guys. G, someone can we please seriously make sure and get some food for them real quick? Can some one get some food? Rob Markman: We'll get on it. Nicki Minaj: Some food and some like, I don't know. If there's pizza around that'll be easier right? Rob Markman: We'll find some. Yeah. Nicki Minaj: But we black we can eat some chicken and stuff right? Rob Markman: Right. Nicki Minaj: You know what I'm saying? Some fried chicken and some... but I'm not giving y'all no soda. I don't want y'all drinking soda no more. Rob Markman: It's to late. Yeah, yeah. Nicki Minaj: I want y'all to drink some water, Gatorade. Okay, you can get soda. Fuck it I want some soda. Rob Markman: Yo, Nick. Nicki Minaj: Alright. Rob Markman: Nick. First of all I wanna welcome you to genius because you and I have been talking about this for a while. I don't know if the Barbs know. Genius we put all the lyrics out for every song. We deal with a lot of artists. I have not met or worked with an artist before who cares this much about their lyrics. When the lyrics go up on Genius and if it's one word wrong, I'm getting that call and we getting it right because it's important for he to be represented the right way. And this is the type of artist that we need to celebrate at Genius who cares about they mother fucking lyrics. Nicki Minaj: Thank you. Rob Markman: So Nicki tonight we're gonna break down some of your lyrics we're gonna decode some of you lyrics we're gonna go through your whole catalog. Nicki Minaj: Okay. Rob Markman: I want for me, I'm kinda selfish cause I wanna understand what goes on in you mind as you're creating and I know the Barbs wanna know what's going on as well. Nicki Minaj: Yup, okay. Rob Markman: First question, just a broad question. Your pen is very important to you. Why? Nicki Minaj: I think it started a long time ago before I even got a deal. I think it became important because we were so conditioned to believe girls didn't write or girls had a ghost writer. So I had this huge chip on my shoulder when I first came in. And I was telling everybody, " I don't care. No man is ever gonna write my rhymes. I don't care. I'm gonna write. I'm smarter that these niggas and dadadada." And so it carried me through my whole career. And If you ask any human being that has known me since the beginning of my career they'll tell you I've been saying that since the beginning, since my mix tape days. Rob Markman: Right. That's ill. And before we get into the specific lyrics, your process what's the process? I know some artist who like to write in the shower. I know you talk about writing in bed a lot. I know some artists who only write in the studio. I know some who use a pen and a pad, some who go off the head, some who use their phone. What's Nicki Minaj's writing process like? Nicki Minaj: Well it's changed. I have written a song in my head in the shower which has saved me a singing song. Most of the stuff that I sing, I don't ever write it. I just freestyle that. Like the chorus on [inaudible 00:06:35] whatever that was never written down, just like a freestyle. But in terms of lyrics, recently I've switched the approach to doing a reference type of mumble track on the beat. And to me, whatever I do the first time is usually the dopest flow. And I jut like to kinda keep that flow and then add words to that flow. I find that sometimes it's a bit confining for me to try to write in the studio. You know a lot of times studios are so dark and it just feels like... and I always feel like it's dark, I fell like I'm claustrophobic or something. But the minute I go on my balcony or if I even walk outside... now I have a studio at my house so it's so much doper. But sometimes if I'm in a studio it feels like I'm working. Sometimes if I put a book and a pen in front of me it feels like it's work and I just can't. But if I take myself away from it and I'm not thinking about it, I literally wake up with lyrics. Rob Markman: [inaudible 00:07:33] Nicki Minaj: You know, yeah because it's art. It shouldn't feel like work. It shouldn't feel like pressured. Once you start feeling like that, you loose, I think the essence of it. The essence of rap is fun. Rap started from having fun in the parks and shit like that with the DJs— Rob Markman: Absolutely. Nicki Minaj: And stuff like that. So once it starts becoming too clinical it's not that easy. Even though it's clinical for me after the fact because that's when I wanna make sure every word rhymes right and sound right and blah, blah, blah. But in the beginning, for me to feel inspired is important for me to feel very relaxed. Rob Markman: Whose the first rapper that you heard that you was like, "Oh this is what I wanna do"? Nicki Minaj: Slick Rick. Rob Markman: Me too. Me too. Me too. Nicki Minaj: I love him. Rob Markman: What was the record? Do you remember the record? Nicki Minaj: Mona Lisa right? Rob Markman: Mona Lisa, okay. Nicki Minaj: I remember I used to be walking around with my mother singing that song and I didn't know that I was a little kid talking about a virgin honey needed a slap. And I don't know why my mother was letting me say that but she just, she would let me say the whole entire rap. Rob Markman: It was funny though because for me too it was like La di da di, Children's story. A lot of his lyrics, a lot of his songs were almost like lullabies. Nicki Minaj: Yeah. Rob Markman: Punched her in the belly, stepped on her feet, slammed the child on the whole concrete. We used to be in the playground singing that. Nicki Minaj: Right. Rob Markman: That's super dope man. I wanna start getting into your bars and I don't know if you remember and it's okay it you don't because we've known each other for a few years. The first time we met, we did a interview at XXL magazine— Nicki Minaj: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yes I do remember that. Rob Markman: back when I worked at XXL. And first Nicki did walk in there and said, "Rob" and she didn't know me said, "You got egg on your face." Because the freshmen cover. Nicki Minaj: Oh. Oh I wasn't on the XXL— Rob Markman: Nicki— Nicki Minaj: Me and Drake wasn't on the XXL freshmen cover. Rob Markman: Wasn't on the freshmen cover. No, listen, listen! But no, that's no the point of the story! Did she need the freshmen cover? No. We know that now. Nicki Minaj: It don't matter. Rob Markman: I know it hurt at the time. Nicki Minaj: No go ahead, go ahead. Rob Markman: But she said, "Man you got egg on your face." So I think you came in kind of real skeptical as an MC should. And we sat down and did this interview and I talked to you. Beam Me Up Scotty was out and I talked to you about my favorite song on the album because it was the one that made me realize who you were as a person. And you couldn't believe that I listen to the entire... I was a journalist, hip hop journalist. She was like, "You actually listened to my mix tape all the way through to the last song?" So I wanna play a little bit of the song and a little bit of the lyric that stood out for me. Can we play that? Can we cue that first? Turn it up. "But when it rains, it pours for real Def Jam said I'm no Lauryn Hill Can't rap and sing on the same CD The public won't get it, they got A.D.D" Rob Markman: Y'all can keep going. Nicki Minaj: Wow. Rob Markman: Nick, when I heard this, this was like, "Oh she's"... you know we heard Itty Bitty and the freestyles and it was like, " Yo she was really dope." But it was like, " This is a twenty year career. This is a legacy that could build." I wanna go back to this lyric. When it rains it pours for real Def Jam said I'm no Lauren Hill, can't rap and sing on the same CD. The public won't get it they got ADD. Can you take me back to that? What happened with Def Jam? Was there a meeting? What is the stroy behind this? Nicki Minaj: Well I think that we were being shopped and I think that... Let me just say this. Every label passed up on me. Every record company passed up on me. And every crew. I'm from New York, Jay's crew and Fifty's crew didn't sign me. I wasn't signed to Nas and I wasn't signed to anybody. So I think it was just... They really did say that number one. Let me just say that. Rob Markman: Cause you just don't make that up. Nicki Minaj: No, no, no, no. They told the people that was shopping my music that. And I remember thinking, "Okay so that means I have to limit myself." Even back then I remember thinking, if I looked a different way I wouldn't need to be limited. People always talk about, if you look a certain way you get preferential treatment but they never say that it works both ways too. You know what I mean? If a woman dresses sexy, for the most part they're not taken as seriously right? I know I'm going way over here but I remember watching something on TV with my boyfriend at that time. Not at that time I'm talking about recently. A couple years ago when Donald Trump won. And I remember my boyfriend at the time talking about, I wanna say Kellyanne is the ladies name. Rob Markman: Kellyanne. Nicki Minaj: Conway. Rob Markman: Yeah. Nicki Minaj: I remember that she was on stage with Donald Trump at one time and he said immediately, " Oh she probably fucked him to get that job, right?" And just remember my blood boiling and I was just like, "Why? What made you say that? Because she's an attractive lady? She couldn't have been smart and attractive? She couldn't have been smart and gotten here degrees and did it the right way and climbed up the ladder the professional, respectful way?" And we really had an argument about that. To me I never judge a woman that way. If I see a bad ass bitch I never assume, "Oh she's stupid or she got where she got cause of the wrong reasons." Right? You gotta show me something else for me to think that about you. But it applied to that Lauren Hill statement because, because I didn't come in there with wraps around my head and being certain way and them feeling that I wasn't spiritual or culturally aware or whatever it is, they just assumed that I didn't have depth as a human being and as a woman. And it was really, really fucked up. I knew what I was capable of. I knew that I was a layered lady. I knew I was multidimensional ut they took one look at me as was just like, "Nope! She gotta be doing this thing right her. Sex sells and that's it we gone keep her in that box." And for a long, long time I was really, really angry about that and so I wrote about that here. And now look. It just dawned on me. I just put out Queen and I'm rapping and singing on Queen and can't nobody tell me a God damn thing. Rob Markman: Yeah. Nicki Minaj: That's my favorite album. Rob Markman: That was my next question. And I know you've spoken before about your... the admiration you have for Lauren. Lauren has a legacy in hip hop and music that is unmatched and a lot of people though could never be touched. But you know who else has one of those legacies that is unmatched and can't be touched is Nicki Minaj. Nicki Minaj: Thank you. Rob Markman: I know you're confident. Are there days when you pinch yourself that you're on this list with the greats, with the people that you looked up to. Nicki Minaj: Sometimes. You know what was one of those moments. You remember that day when Jay was tweeting a bunch of people and... I just didn't expect to see my name as one of those people. And I remember it said Lauren Hill, Nicki Minaj and I almost just died right there because you never think that somebody that you look up to and get so much inspiration from is one day gonna tweet your name and it was after Lauren's name. I was like, "Oh my God." Because all those people are people I look up to. Rob Markman: Right. Let's talk about this Jay Z fella because... We're gonna fast forward a little bit and out of present company excluded is just my favorite artist, like Jay. I grew up looking up to Jay and we used to argue about, when Jay gets on the track with anybody I'd argue. Like, "Nah Jay got..." Jay and Eminem Renegade, which they argue and you know. Nicki Minaj: Who you be saying? Rob Markman: I say Jay. But listen it was one instance when Jay was on the track with a certain rapper. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Respectfully. This verse was a turning moment. I just wanna revisit this verse. Can we revisit this verse? You know where we going with it. Nicki Minaj: (singing) Rob Markman: Okay. What! Nicki Minaj: (singing) You know they gonna do this all night right? Rob Markman: Yup. Alright. Nicki Minaj: (singing) Rob Markman: Alright, alright, alright. Alright, alright , alright ,alright alright. Nicki Minaj: Alright, okay you guys. Rob Markman: That's amazing though. I love y'all energy give it up for yourselves. Nicki Minaj: They're so dope. Rob Markman: The one line here and that's rap. That's like when you get on the track as a MC even if respect, and I know the respect you have for Jay and Kanye and Ross is on the track. It's still like you're not gonna body me I'm gonna own my now. And we talked about this too because before you named this album I remember I was calling you King. I said, "You not the queen you the king." Nicki Minaj: Aww. Rob Markman: Because a lot of times, and queen is a dope title and you are the queen but sometimes we gotta stop this stigma where the woman MC is number two. Nicki Minaj: Thank you. Rob Markman: It's certain shit. It's about your wordplay. It's about your bars. And it's certain field of sports where man and women...like I think Serena's the best tennis player on Earth. I think you can put her on any— Nicki Minaj: Absolutely. Absolutely. Rob Markman: You know what I'm saying? You could put her up against any man and they getting bodied. And you could be the king but watch the queen conquer. Can you please talk about that and what was going through your mind? Nicki Minaj: I don't know. That was a long, long, long time ago but I'm trying to think. Oh I know. At that time well I knew I was on Kanye's album. Even at that time, Kanye was a pretty big deal. So I knew I was getting on an album with someone that was a big presence. So I was basically talking to him. Like, "Alright I'm gonna show you something." I wanted to impress him so to speak and show out pretty much. When I started there was really no presence really. Of course there are so many women who opened the door for me but there was a drought when I came. It was a long drought for a long time. So it was just like the rebirth really. And I think that song and that was a moment in time. I've never seen anything like that happen. Rob Markman: Yeah Nicki Minaj: I remember Kanye calling me he said, " I know niggas gonna say this is the best verse on my album. I'm taking a chance by putting this shit on here man. You know what I'm saying?" And you no Kanye is so dramatic. He's so colorful, the way he talks. In my head I was dying like inside I was dying because I was like, "Please don't let this man not put this song on there Jesus!" I was praying. I really prayed to Jesus. I was like, "Lord please let him just be okay." I didn't know Jay Z was on it until the song came out. Rob Markman: Were you sweating? Were you a little bit nervous? Nicki Minaj: Little! Actually I'm lying. Months had gone by and Kanye said I put Jay on it. But of course I didn't here Jay on it so you don't know until you know. I didn't hear anything and I did not even wanna say can I hear it. I was so nervous. This is to tell you how different stuff was for me at that time because now I have so much control over everything. It was so different that I did not even approve the mix on my vocals. Everybody that know me know how crazy that is right now. Anybody that's in the industry they know right? He took other take and put them together in one take because I did not want all those grunting sounds in one verse. Rob Markman: Right. Nicki Minaj: And I was like, "Can you please no!" I fought him while we were still in the studio. I said, "No, no. Why are you doing that? Why are you doing that? What are you doing?" He was like, " Nah, I like that, that's dope." I was like, "No, no. It just should be like just a couple, just a couple." You know the monster voice. Rob Markman: Right, right, right. Nicki Minaj: And he was so obsessed with that little dumb monster voice. He wanted it to be in the whole thing and I remember being so mad at him but I couldn't say anything. I was just like... Rob Markman: But it turned out great. It turned out— Nicki Minaj: Great. Rob Markman: You know the fact it was that 2010 we talking about eight years later. I'm a hip hop head. So I'm a talk hip hope I'm not gonna talk pop with y'all. Sorry that's not what I do. I mean there's certain verse, I remember when I heard AZ on Nas' Life a Bitch just like how stand out that... it's certain moments in hip hop that makes you stop and be like, "Hold up. This a moment." Nicki Minaj: Yeah. Rob Markman: And eight years later we still talking about it. Nicki Minaj: Word. Rob Markman: And the verse don't get old. Nicki Minaj: Has there been a female rap verse— Rob Markman: Stop, stop. Nicki Minaj: Since then? Rob Markman: Wait, wait, wait, wait. We deadened that tonight. Female rap verse. We talking about rap verse. Nicki Minaj: Rap. You right, you right, you right. My bad it's not about female rap. But has new person on the scene being on a— Rob Markman: Y'all biased. Think about it. Take a second to think about it. Nicki Minaj: Being on a song with icons... No listen to this. Since Monster has there been a new rapper on a record with icons that stood out like that? Rob Markman: Listen, that's a good question. I can't think of one. I'm gonna get back to you. Nicki Minaj: Yeah I wanna think about it. Rob Markman: I wanna do the due diligence of doing it— Nicki Minaj: Yeah I think we should. Rob Markman: Because we having hip hop discussions. But I wanna go to something else. This gonna be fun. So as you start to develop your pen and your pen starts to develop we get to see Nicki Minaj the MC, you start giving us these lines that become your signature lines and we here it over and over and over again. Can we hit play? Hold on. Alright wait. Hold on. I wanna play a game with y'all real quick. We gonna start. I'm gonna just take three people from the audience so chill out. This is Genius so we look at lyrics very differently okay. So we went through all of Nicki Minaj's lyrics and we counted up, if she had a son for every time she said all you bitches is my sons how many sons would she have? Alright. Look we gonna do this real quick. My man right there with the bandana in the back, what you think? Aww man you raising your hand. You lost. Right here, right here come on. Speaker 1: 250 Rob Markman: 250. Okay one more. Speaker 2: 52 Rob Markman: 52? One more, one more, one more, one , one more. You right there? Yeah yeah. Speaker 3: 84 Rob Markman: 84? Okay. 52, 250. Nicki how many do you think? Nicki Minaj: At least a hundred. 75, 75, 75. Rob Markman: This feel like the price is right don't it? 51. My man right here got it. 51. Nick, I wanna know for you the first time you came up with all you bitches is my sons and then when you decided to make it a thing. Because the Barbs get it. Because there's some Nicki haters, who I don't understand it, I don't get. Listen, lighten. Why she say you bitches is my son so much? They don't get it. We get it. Nicki Minaj: Alright so, let me tell you what that's about. One day when I was living in Atlanta, I was in the middle of management. I was looking for managers and there were three people who I was talking to to manage me. Anyway, but what I'll say is this, one of them was Puff Daddy. You know Puffy managed me and ended up managing me for a very short period of time right? Rob Markman: I was at XXL. That was a confusing time. I didn't know who to hit to get a Nicki Minaj interview at that point. Nicki Minaj: But look, Puff, on the fucking phone said to me... because I was like, "I'm gonna meet with you and then I'm gonna have a meeting with two..." and I told him who I'm gonna meet. He was like, and you know how he be stuttering when he get mad a little bit. He's like, " Yo check this out, Yo check this out, check this out. Yo check this out. Man like all these niggas my sons man. All these niggas my sons man. Niggas can't tell me none. All these niggas my sons." I put the phone on mute and cried. I was on the fucking floor rolling. No this man did not just tell me all these niggas is his sons. And we're talking about executives in the industry. So I was so tickled by that that trying to be funny I said it. Now what happened once I said is that it stuck but remember that Little Wayne... I don't know if y'all no me, y'all know that everything that Wayne did I wanted to do. So Wayne had a signature. F right? So Wayne's signature is F stands for whatever right? Rob Markman: The F is for phenomenal. Nicki Minaj: Or F is for a bunch of shit or— Rob Markman: F is for finisher. We got a whole Genius video on Weezy F too. Shout out to Genius we be going deep but continue. Yup. Nicki Minaj: So, because Wayne had that, and I thought I was the female Weezy, I said, "Oh my God. I need to have that be a trademark thing that I always do." Because, it was so funny for a girl to say all these ... whatever, is her sons. And, I'm talking about bitches when I'm calling y'all my sons. So, it was so comical that everybody got a kick out of it. So I said, "You know what? Just to push myself lyrically," I said, "I'm gonna just try to keep on making up new ones." And so, I hear a lot of girls saying stuff like that now. And I be like— Rob Markman: But that's dope, that's influence— Nicki Minaj: Absolutely. Rob Markman: That's influence. Nicki Minaj: Absolutely. I'm not mad at that. Rob Markman: We know where it came from. Nicki Minaj: Yeah. I'm not mad at all. But, it started off as a joke. Puffy said it to me, he was dead ass serious. It tickled me so much, I just had to keep it as a part of my repertoire. Rob Markman: That's dope. I didn't know that came from Puffy, that's super dope. That's a dope story. This is the shit we trying to get to. Hey listen, there's been a lot of Nicki Minaj interviews this week. I wanted to make this one different. This is genius. I just wanted to go in a different direction. Nicki Minaj: Did y'all get their food? I didn't forget. Rob Markman: Real quick, because we're definitely going to get into Queen lyrics, there's a lot on Queen. I did, over the weekend, I was having a hard time just picking lyrics to ask you about, because there was so many. So, I did ask The Barbs, I reached out to The Barbs on Twitter and said, "I'm working with Nicki. What are some of your favorite lines?" This one was ill, I remember this one. I want to know if you remember this one. I'm just going to read it out. "Now ever club promoter, wanna bid like auctions," Nicki Minaj: "Sell ticks like Boston." I remember exactly where I was when I made that up. Rob Markman: Let's go, this is what we want, let's go. Nicki Minaj: I was driving my BMW, I was coming down the ... I think it's the West Side Highway. I'm not good with streets, or whatever, highways, whatever. But I was driving in a car by myself, and I was waitressing at that time. And so, that lyric is very old, because I was still a waitress. Rob Markman: 2008. Sucka free, right? Nicki Minaj: And I put that ... Oh, is that where it's on? Okay. Did I ever re-use that lyric, because I feel like I did? On Envy? Rob Markman: Yep. Nicki Minaj: I knew I would re-use that shit, because it's so fucking hard to me. But, I remember when I had that in my head going to the studio, because at that time I was still in a group. I remember being mad hype to go to the studio and show off to the boys in my group, that I had that lyric. Because, I thought that was a dope lyric. "Sell ticks like Boston." And by the way, to this day, people are always confused that I spit sports metaphors. So, this is what I want to say— Rob Markman: Talk about it. Nicki Minaj: ... yeah. Now, now, I'm gonna give you an example, right? On [inaudible 00:30:06] it's a lyric that says, "My— No, that's not the lyric. No, but that's a dope one. No, but that's a dope one. But, I wasn't talking about that babe. But no, no, no, no. Swish Swish, Wichita, Wichita, remember? Rob Markman: Yeah. Yeah. Nicki Minaj: "Tell that bitch I'm in the league, she still play for Wichita." So, nobody would think that I wrote ... First of all, niggas don't even, it's probably niggas that have no clue what I'm talking with that. Rob Markman: Right. Nicki Minaj: So, I literally looked up, I looked on Google, and I said, "Let me find a college basketball team," or, something that doesn't have a ... They don't play in the big leagues. You don't— Rob Markman: Super mainstream— Nicki Minaj: Yeah— Rob Markman: ... it's not obvious. Nicki Minaj: Right. So, I looked up and I found Wichita, and I just had to make it rhyme, right? So, someone was asking me the other day, "What would make you say that? You're a girl, how do you get so in depth with sports stuff?" I said, "Google. It's your best fucking friend." Anybody that wants to rap, and this is true shit, if you want to rap to expand your vocabulary. I think that it's very important to expand your vocabulary. I think it's very important to be colorful in your lyrics. I think it's very important to say shit that no one's ever said before. We all say stuff that people have said before, right? But, Google is my best friend. Rob Markman: Right. Nicki Minaj: So, I always ... for instance, I'm gonna give an example. You know O'Dell and ... no, no, and the white guy, Brad Wing? Rob Markman: Yeah. Nicki Minaj: He ... first, I didn't even know him. I had no clue who that man was. Never heard of him, never met him— Rob Markman: I thought you watched sports. I listened to the album, I'm like, "Nicki be up watching ESPN like a mother fucker." Nicki Minaj: Let me tell you what I did. I was writing this song for Calvin Harris, it's called Skirt. So, why is it I go on Google? I went on Google, and I literally googled Top Punters. You know why? Because, I wanted to rhyme something ... This is so crazy. Rob Markman: Right. Nicki Minaj: The lyric about punting, right? But, it just happened that the line before that was Yao Ming. And when I saw Brad Wing, I was like, "Yao Ming, Brad Wing, this is too good to be fucking true." So, I put Brad Wing in the line. Listen, this is crazy. I was not following that man on Instagram or nothing. I was following O'Dell, but I didn't know that was O'Dell's best fucking friend. It's just how the universe works. Rob Markman: Right, that's dope. Nicki Minaj: I did not seek out to put Brad Wing's name in the lyric. I googled Top Punting People, blah, blah, blah. And, I seen his name, I think his name was number seven, or something. It wasn't the top one, but it just rhymes perfectly with Yao Ming. Rob Markman: That so ill. Nicki Minaj: That's how I get a lot of my sports metaphors. When [inaudible 00:33:14] was on house arrest, they used to walk by school all day, every single day. They were better in basketball, blah, blah, blah. So I'm there, I'm absorbing the information, you know. I'm not gonna just sit there and just be like ... People think women are dumb. Rob Markman: Oh, come on. Nicki Minaj: I went to an interview with L.U.G. right. He said, "You know how I knew you write your lyrics? Because of Barbie Dreams." I said, "Huh? You believed that I write my lyrics all these years later because of Barbie Dreams?" I said, "Why?" He said, "Because it shows that you're aware of what's going on." It's almost like men think that being is a woman is a handicap. No, it's not a handicap, we're very intelligent, we're paying attention. The same way y'all pay attention, we pay attention. Rob Markman: But, let me tell you real quick, add to the point. This is the conversations I want to have with you, because there's certain ones of us that look at rap differently. And when you said Wichita, I don't know if I ever ... Rap just celebrated its 45 year birthday for Hip Hop, right. And think about this, I could be wrong, but in 45 years I don't think I ever heard a rapper use the word Wichita in the rhyme. Unlikely right? It kind of reminds me of Notorious B.I.G. "Poppa been smooth since days of Underroos." I never heard nobody use Underroos in a fucking rap. Because, it's about finding the different words and connections and building on it. This is the type of shit I want to salute you for, because I don't know that you get enough credit. People, y'all give her the credit, we know. But again, when I'm talking about in the span of Hip Hop, where you fit in and the work you put in. I believe in giving people the flowers while they still smell them, so these are your flowers. One more and then we gonna get into Queen. This shit is ill. This shit, yo, I had to rewind this back like five times, because I was like, "I know I'm missing something." And then, I had to look it up on Genius, I aint even gonna lie. That's not even the plug. I really went to Genius, "Yo, what?" So, can we just play this one? This is from Changed It. Yo, Nick, I done started some shit! Listen, talk about ... Because this is a whole different technique, like— Nicki Minaj: Hey wait, hold on, hold on! Hold on! Because, I see people doing this all the time. They so fucking dumb. When they hear me saying words that sound alike, they have no idea that I just used it in three different ways, because they're that fucking dumb. Because, people simplify their lyrics now, so much that if they're not hearing something that's an A, B, C thing, they think, "Oh, next. What are you talking? You're saying the same word." So absolutely, "No, you can't bone it, nigga, ain't no Lisa here. She gon' dread dissin' Nicki like Lisa hair. I buy, lil nigga, ain't no leaser here." Rob Markman: That's hard. Nicki Minaj: No, let's go back! Let's go back! "No, you can't bone it, nigga, ain't no Lisa here." But wait. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Because it's so intricate. Now, when you spell Lisa Bonet's last name, right. It really ... Spell Lisa Bonet's last name. Rob Markman: B-O-N-E-T. Yeah. I think there's an accent there somewhere. It might be an accent, there's no accent? I failed English. Nicki Minaj: Yo, this is like some shit that really have to be an intelligent human. You know what I mean? You can't be stupid. So, shout out to all the stupid bitches that think ... you know. You have to have some sort of brain power to be a great rapper. All of our favorite rappers are intelligent. JME, Wayne, you can hear it. You can hear that they are intelligent people, by the way they rap. Rob Markman: Alright. Let's get into Queen real quick, man. New project, Queen. I just want to know, at this point, we went through your career when you were young. The things that you were learning about yourself, how you were building. Queen, you are a veteran in Hip Hop. But, did you approach this album any differently with your writing? Was there anything that you pushed yourself to do, that you previously hadn't on other projects? How did you approach this when you started penning this project? Nicki Minaj: One of the things that I wanted to do was definitely give them some hints of Roman, because I don't think I did that on The Pinkprint. So, just having the fast flow and the wild stuff. I did that at the end of Barbie Dreams. I did that on LLC, a little bit. And at the end of Majesty. No, no, the end of Barbie Dreams. I didn't do Roman on Majesty. Rob Markman: That last verse on Barbie Dreams is crazy. Nicki Minaj: Yeah, thank you, thank you. Rob Markman: It was crazy. Nicki Minaj: I love that one. Thank you. But one of the things I wanted to do, because I felt like I didn't give my fans that on The Pinkprint, and I felt like they wanted that. Was, those kind of Roman moments, like rapping fast. I didn't realize how much people liked me rapping fast, until I dropped the last album. And they was like, "I want ... Where's the fast stuff?" So, that was one of the things that I promised myself with this album, that I would have a couple, at least, that they can't learn right away. Because, my fans get a kick out of learning the lyrics and singing back. Rob Markman: Okay. One of my favorites, because I'm just a rap fan, I'm sorry, LLC. Nicki Minaj: Everybody like ... Yo, every. A lot of men that I spoke to ... because, even I spoke to Sway, he said LLC. Everybody likes that one lyrically. Rob Markman: It's hard. Can we just hear? Because, it's an on-going theme on this album that I want to talk ... We touched on it before, but I want to ... because, it's on-going on this album. Just play this part of LLC real quick. Now, now, that's hard. Now listen. Nicki Minaj: Thank you. Rob Markman: We talked about in the beginning of your career, really defending your pen. Defending yourself from never letting a man write for you. I feel like you established yourself. I feel like you know that you established yourself as a force. Why ... and even the flex interview, watching it, I had a love/hate relationship. The love was the tea that was spilled, sure. But, the hate was seeing you having to defend yourself, and defend your pen. And, it happens a lot on this album. Why do you feel like you still have to say this? Even on Ganja Dreams, I'm like, a lot of these ... Ganja Burns, I'm sorry. Nicki Minaj: Let him rock. Rob Markman: I mixed up Ganja dreams. "Unlike a lot of these hoes whether wack or lit. At least I can say I wrote every rap I spit." Why is it— Nicki Minaj: No, to me, it's not about what bitches do y'all. This the thing, this is the thing. Since I'm saying these things now, it's almost like I haven't been saying it. I've always been saying these things. And because I'm the bad guy, it's now fun to say, "Oh, she's only now posting her steps on Instagram." Bitch, I been the one posting my steps for the last fucking 10 years! But everything I do now it's, "She's doing it now for the first time." No, suck my dick for the first time. Let's start there, let's start there. Listen you guys, this is the truth, this is the truth. Y'all know I've been saying that since my mixed tape days. And so, after Queen, after this album, I won't explain myself anymore. However, when you have people out there lying on you. And, lying on the only thing that I care about, my legacy, my integrity. Can you imagine, something that you love to do, and then someone just takes it all away from you and say, "You didn't do that." Authenticity. Can you imagine? Hold on, can you imagine? I'm gonna kick ... Who is it? I'm will kick you right on out. No, I'm going to make you sit right up here with the teacher. No! Y'all are like bad kids. Y'all always been like ... Okay, no, seriously. Rob, can you imagine, right? Would you consider yourself and journalist and an MC? I think you are, but also a journalist. Rob Markman: Oh, you heard that? Nicki Minaj: Yes, yes. That's why you pay attention in a different way. Rob Markman: Right. Nicki Minaj: But you're a journalist too, right? Rob Markman: Absolutely. Nicki Minaj: What if one day, after you had put 10 years into your journalism career, someone started going around and telling people you never wrote those amazing articles? How would you feel? Rob Markman: It's all you got. All I have is the work that I put in. The money, even the money that we make from it, that gets spent, the money goes. Nicki Minaj: Thank you. So, people have the audacity to be angry at me for defending my fucking craft. Are you fucking stupid? Rob Markman: Well, listen, listen. I came up in an era where it was very important in Hip Hop for you to have written your own rhymes. I feel like, and this is just me, I fight it all the time, but I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle. I feel like the climate has changed. Nicki Minaj: It's not a losing battle. The climate has changed. Rob Markman: Should I give up? Should we give up and just accept? Nicki Minaj: No, no, no. And, if you want to accept it, go over there and accept it. And if you don't want to write your raps, that's fine. But, don't expect to be treated like people who do write their raps. I'm just saying. Don't expect, don't be walking around here like you dat nigga, or you dat bitch, if you don't write raps. Rappers write their raps! Period! So, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine. My thing is, just stay up, keep quiet. Keep quiet. You know how they used to say, when grown folks is talking, stay out my ... baby, baby. When writers is ... just shut the ... just relax. You don't do this. Rob Markman: There's a certain conversation that goes on, I know at least for males in the barber shop. You know, if you in school and at the lunch table. There's certain MC conversations that we have. It doesn't mean ... Diddy has famously said, "It don't matter if I write rhymes. I write checks." And No Way Out is a classic. We can still enjoy the music, but it's a different conversation. Am I reading you right? No? Nicki Minaj: The different is that Puff Daddy never attempts to compare himself with Biggie and JayZ. That's the difference. And the difference is, if you were to tell Puffy, "You ain't," da da da, he ain't gonna argue you down. He gonna let you know you damn right, and he gonna dance his happy ass around, and you know. When you are getting angry that people are pointing this out, when you have come into our world, then you need to get checked. You have come into our fucking world. If you are going to fucking med school, and you go into a fucking hospital, but you ain't never studied your fucking med books and shit. And, passed the med tests and shit. You don't think the doctors is going to be like, "Hold on BooBoo. What we doing, surgery? You gotta sit this one out. And you better not come in here with no mother fucking attitude. Be happy that you mother fucking here! Be happy that we letting you wear the white coat!" Rob Markman: Yo, hold on, hold on, hold on. Because it gets deeper. Nicki Minaj: And I'm saying this goes for ev ... I know everybody ... I know y'all wanna be messy. This is not about women, it's about every ... it's a lot of people running around here doing that. There's a lot of people doing that. This is not just about women. Rob Markman: Listen, there's another line on LLC. This is an important record. "Tryna make a new Nicki, where the factory? They'll never toe to toe on a track with me. There'll never be another one after me. 'Cause the skill level still just a half of me." What's this Nicki factory that you speak? What's this factory that you speak of? Nicki Minaj: Well, no, you guys listen. It's no secret ... ooh, who calling me? Rob Markman: Yeah, it's late. What is that? This booty call hours right? Nicki Minaj: Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello? Y'all made me miss my call. Rob Markman: She said, "I'm gonna wait up for you." Nicki Minaj: No, that wasn't New Boy, be quiet. Y'all so messy. And y'all be telling my little business in the street. I be telling y'all new cold stuff about New Boy and stuff. And y'all be telling everybody about New Boy. I been wanting everybody know about New Boy. I did not tell anybody about New Boy. I told y'all I was liking some tweets about New Boy, amongst us, and y'all had to— Rob Markman: So you gonna skip over my factory question. Nicki Minaj: I ain't think you was gonna repeat that. But listen, you guys, here's the thing. It's not secret, listen, this is the thing. And, I know everything I say has this extra impact now, right. It's not secret that when ... I'm from the hood. Rob Markman: We know. Nicki Minaj: In every hood, and every human being here knows this. You grow up in a neighborhood with a small laundromat. Now, the laundromat in the neighborhood is convenient, you know the people, it's fine. You wash your clothes, you're in and out, it's homely, it's whatever. In every hood, at one point in time, there will come a big laundromat that's really nice and pretty, and has a lot of flat screen TVs. And now, that small laundromat has to worry, "Oh my God. Are all my customers going to leave?" Right? Here's my thing. When I'm saying the factory stuff, I'm a business woman, and this is my business. I know y'all get a kick out of this shit. I know that this is like some fun. You guys have your own lives, y'all get to just laugh at us all day, watch us arguing online. Looking at the hot fucking dumb ass mess. But this is my real life. It is no secret that if there is a woman, a man, an alien, an anything, a burger, a laundromat that's doing well, people want to replicate, duplicate, recreate. That's common sense, right y'all? So, that's not a diss. I want y'all to learn the difference between shade. Because people are always saying the word shade. I want you to understand that this is not a diss, that's a fact. That, people have seen me being successful in the industry for a very long time. And, they want a Nicki of their own. Is that not true? Okay, so I'm saying that, there were factories to create Nicki two years ago, four years ago, five years ago, why wouldn't they? If there is a young thing, they wanted to create a new Lil Wayne. You don't think that they wanted to create another Eminem? You understand? Eminem is saying, "Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?" And all this stuff. So, that's not a diss. That is ... If there's a laundromat on the block, and everybody goes there, someday somebody's going to come in and say, "Wait a minute, if I make a shine, real big laundromat with flat screens, I can take their customers." If Burger King sets up shop, and there's only chicken spots in the neighborhood, one day McDonald's is going into the neighborhood and say, "Hmm, there's a desire for burgers here. And I don't want Burger King getting all the burger money, when I make burgers too." Rob Markman: You're making everybody hungry. Nicki Minaj: What? So, that's not shade, that is obvious that for years and years they've wanted their ... every label wants their own Nicki. A female that is profitable. So, is there something wrong with me saying that Rob? Rob Markman: I don't think so. But, I want to challenge you, I want to play Devil's advocate for a second. Nicki Minaj: Sure. Rob Markman: We'll go back to this lyric, we're going to play it in a second from I'm The Best. You often talk about blazing trails for women, and kicking down doors so they don't have to, so it's easier for the next one. So, where's the balance ... And, we're going to play this lyric, because I want you to go back to this. Where's the balance of defending your brand and what you built, you business, as you say, and the other lane of opening a door that other women are supposed to follow the blueprint that you set? That's a good thing. Nicki Minaj: Right. Rob Markman: Let's just play this quick verse from I'm The Best, these quick lines. It made me think of this. I want to pose that question— Nicki Minaj: I think that was a very smart thing that you just did. Rob Markman: Thank you. Look, you know. But, there was the criticism that Nicki Minaj is too protective of her brand— Nicki Minaj: Excuse me! When Floyd Mayweather gets in the ring, does he try to knock you the fuck out?! Or, does he try to wipe your ass and kiss you and play footsies?! Like, what the fuck is this now?! You niggas don't want rappers to rap, you niggas don't want rappers to be aggressive. Are you fucking for real?! When Serena gets on the fucking court, is she playing to fucking win?! Come one! Of course I know I'm going to open doors, I've opened several doors. Every single person ... you know what, let me just. Listen, what I'm saying is, I think that was a very smart thing you just said, right. And I have gone out of my way to be open arms, loving, and accepting. And, I've been completely ... People have been so fucking ungrateful. It's disgusting, it's fucking disgusting. To this day, I treat Foxy like she's the fucking queen of Egypt. Rob Markman: Right. Broken Silence is a classic. Nicki Minaj: So, my thing is this. When you open the door for somebody and then they come in and be like, "Alright bitch, bye bitch." You gonna be like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." My thing is this, you don't have to be nasty. You don't have to do that. You can acknowledge that you're inspired. It's okay, we know, we know. So, no, in no way shape or form PART 2 OF 3 ENDS [00:54:04] Nicki Minaj: So no in no way shape or form do I not think it's a good thing to open doors because doors were opened for me and when I was on the come up dvds, if you play my interviews, I didn't only name Foxy. In all my interviews, I named several females over and over and over and over and fucking over. But they don't tell you that story about me. They only have one narrative. Someone got at me, a veteran got at me and I hit them with Roman's Revenge and then I kept on going. Because what am I suppose to fucking do? Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. What was I suppose to do? Not feed my fucking family? You never gonna make me not feed my motherfucking family. Ever. So I did what I had to fucking do. Prior to that I was bigging them up over and over and over and over and over. Do I have to pull up the fucking interviews? Do I have to pull up the interviews? Do I have to pull up the allhiphop.com questionnaire when they asked me my top five and four women were listed on my top five. Remember there was one line with Lauryn ... there was one line that said Kim, Foxy, and Remy. Nobody remembers that. Rob Markman: Right. It's facts. It's facts. Nicki Minaj: I named Jay, Wayne, Jadakiss, Lauryn ... and on one line Kim, Foxy, Remy. Go on youtube and see how many times I said bitches names. But y'all training new bitches to come in and disrespect me. I didn't have none of that. I didn't have help. I didn't have none of that help. Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. Everybody that was around Wayne, you was just around Wayne. I was on twitter building my fan base, getting a rapport with my fans, booking shows myself okay. I didn't have all of that shit. I couldn't pay a bunch of people to say they liked me and do all this shit. My talents, my talents. Rob Markman: And that's what we here to celebrate tonight. [crosstalk 00:56:29] Nicki Minaj: So my thing is I know everybody loves to paint me as the bad guy now. I get it. And therefore you guys my own culture has allowed people to come in and think they do not have to respect the queen. Could you imagine someone coming in and treating Jay or Wayne like that? They would never. They would never. The culture wouldn't stand for that. But y'all think by doing all this shit behind the scenes and gathering together that y'all was gonna get rid of me and somebody fucking lied. Because y'all not. Y'all sent somebody before and then every time y'all try it everyone that tries it learns the hard way. I'm chosen. I'm the chosen one I'm not going nowhere until the fuck I want to go somewhere. So the best bet for y'all to do is to hope and pray that I want to push some babies out my pussy because before I do that I will be right fucking here winning. And this is not in any way shade, anger, nothing this is just facts and whenever everyone else in this fucking world in this industry is allowed to speak. They're allowed to express themselves. They're allowed to be as dumb as they want to be. They're allowed to be you know whatever. Like I see so many men going on Instagram all the time having rants. People laugh it off even women laugh it off. Women laugh off these men having rants all the time. But women when they see another woman defending their self defending their legacy it's a problem. They hate their own. They're crabs in a bucket. We kill our own. It's just about giving respect. That's it. Rob Markman: And that's what we're trying to level the playing field. The playing field level or should be leveled in all reality. It's not but I feel like on them tracks when you turn those raps on you're gonna go at whoever and have the best performance on the track that you could possibly no matter man or woman and this is what we're talking about. You had mentioned something making you out to be the bad guy. I want to go to Chun Li. I wonder if this is a google situation. I grew up a big street fighter fan like and you have a lot of street fighter you know when you and Willow in Fireball built a guest house just to put the coupe in cause I'm a fireball, Hadouken. You mentioned Chun Li before in my fantasy I'm like yo Nicki she get down in Street Fighter. I want to play Nicki in Street Fighter man. Nicki Minaj: I haven't played for a long time. But of course I think we all use to play ... but I don't know about y'all but we all played yeah. Rob Markman: I definitely want— Nicki Minaj: Play me? Rob Markman: Yeah. yeah. That should probably be good go viral. Nicki Minaj: All right. We'll do it. I think that's cool. Rob Markman: Not tonight this at a later date. But you do know one of the things people guided you and understand was but it was a bit of Chun Li here there's a bit of Scar Face here. I'm the bad guy. I just want to clarify Nicki Minaj knows that Chun Li wasn't a bad guy? Right Nicki Minaj knows this. Nicki Minaj: Right I know he's saying that because a lot of people online were saying that. They were like, "Oh this dumb bitch think Chun Li," the fuck no I'm saying that yeah that's the point. The point is that even when you're fighting for a good cause people can flip it. You can be the greatest person but ... exactly that's what I think of myself. I think I am the good guy being portrayed as the bad guy. Rob Markman: Chun Li. There you guy. Okay, this record is crazy. And we're gonna play this. We'll wind it down we definitely like getting towards the ninth ending and y'all been an amazing crowd for real. Nicki Minaj: Absolutely, I love y'all so much. Rob Markman: This again I'm telling you Nick, I'm a hip hop head, this kind of heart my heart when I seen you drop this song off of Queen and I seen a lot of outlets reporting that it was a diss track staring name and names and a lot of it happens is we live in the era of quick bait so it's easy to make it a diss but it pained me because people didn't see the legacy of where this track came from. Can we hear this track that I'm talking about? I think y'all know the track I'm talking about (singing). Hold up. hold up. Nicki Minaj: Come here. Come here. Come here. You come here. Rob Markman: I think we might of made a mistake. Wrong version but y'all knew it. That was a test. Nicki Minaj: Not you but you two both of you that's okay but I was talking to this lady but you can come here to. What's your name? Speaker 4: It's Nicole I'm from Queens and I fucking love you. Nicki Minaj: Oh my God. How do you ... you seem so young ... how do you know the plays older version. Speaker 4: I listen to all of your music like come on like you are my idol you are my idol I love you. Nicki Minaj: Thank you. Speaker 4: I'm from Queen I'm in Rosedale my friend lives on your old block in Baisley. Like I love you. Nicki Minaj: She was really like spitting every lyric. Rob Markman: Absolutely. Harell shout out Harell. Speaker 4: When I first heard this I thought it was the song I was like... Rob Markman: Listen. Nicki Minaj: Yes Rob Markman: Let's play the 2018 Queen version just— Nicki Minaj: Hold up what's your name? Speaker 5: Jaquel. Nicki Minaj: Jaquel, where are you from? Speaker 5: Queens. Nicki Minaj: I think y'all be liking me because I'm from Queens or something. Because I be having a lot of fans in Queens I be like how is this possible. All right y'all I just wanted to say I love you guys and thank you for your passion. All of you guys is so lovely and passionate but thank you. Rob Markman: Let's go Barbie Dreams. Let's go. We got the new one? Nicki Minaj: No you guys should go back in your seats. Rob Markman: Naw, Okay (singing). That's a hard bar. That's a hard bar. Nicki Minaj: And I guarantee you half of these kids in here don't even know— Rob Markman: Thank's YaYo, 50. Nicki Minaj: I bet y'all didn't even know what that bar meant. Rob Markman: Nick? Nicki Minaj: Yes. Rob Markman: Where were you when you decided to do Barbie Dreams and where you thinking ... did you know like you know you touched this in '07? Nicki Minaj: Yes. Rob Markman: And a lot of people didn't know it but when did you decide you know what it's time I'm going back in on this? Nicki Minaj: It's been on my mind for a while and then I was dating someone right and I said I asked him what he thought and I don't think he would of been to found of it. So being that we happen to break up I was able to slide that in there and I been putting the bars together. But one day, this is a true story but one day I was coming to the ... oh I see black people moving that means food. Whenever black people start when you start losing their attention ... but that's okay y'all I understand you guys are hungry you guys get food. I'll be here talking don't worry. But look so one day I just pulled up to the studio before I had my own little studio. But I pulled up to the studio and Rob I'm not kidding I don't know but I was in a really good mood and I just started free styling some stuff like the oozy line. And I was just making myself laugh. And my assistant was in the front seat of the car and she was looking at me like what is she doing and i was just ... but you guys be quite a little bit. Rob Markman: Yeah orderly be orderly. Nicki Minaj: Because rob is gonna like this. That means we got to. Rob Markman: Because we're about to get to the good part we don't want to miss this. Nicki Minaj: Yeah so now the thug line the oozy line and the— Rob Markman: He's stealing your gestures. Nicki Minaj: And it was a couple of lines that came to me oh and the designer— Rob Markman: Nick Nicki Minaj: Really I did not got to the studio that day I was not going to that studio to do Barbie Dream. I promise you. I kept on having little lines like I was doing a voice note in my phone and all of a sudden that day when I pull up to the studio it was a nice day and something just in my head had a joke about one of the guys and I had the Fetty Wap line and I started crying and so I said you know what fuck that it just inspired me I was like no this shit is starting to be funny. So I said let me record it and then when I recorded it I did one verse first and when my managers came in so G came to the studio— Rob Markman: Shout out G. Nicki Minaj: Shout out to G Roberson. Now you know G and I are like inseparable like so Gene came with him as well and I didn't tell them that I did it because I had already told them naw I changed my mind I'm not gonna do it but I laid it and I told them to come by the studio and I video taped their reaction to hearing it and it is priceless. I'm put that on the documentary. So that you can see when they heard that I was really about to ... because they knew ... we knew it was gonna be game changing I kept on saying you know this is gonna change the culture because I'm the only one that could do because it's so much history behind it and it's just is dope that I did it in '07 you know my first mix tape. And it feels like everything has came full circle with Queen and everything feels good about it the making of Queen and the way it came out and everything so I wanted to get people something that would make them excited like how they were when they first started hearing me. Rob Markman: And that's dope that AB did the listen to the old one and the new one. If you compare the rappers that you talk about it really brings you back to a time when like it was a lot of Dipset talk in the first one but being from New York of course and now the new version is just so dope. It's dope to listen to compared to where you were in '07 and where you are now with it. Nicki Minaj: True story, I have not listened to the old version but because you said that I want to go and listen to it. Rob Markman: One question I want to know, two things, it wasn't a diss track it hurt me when you had to tweet and explain that again I'm a hip hop head so I'm a spread some knowledge. Hip hop has a deep history of these type of tracks if you go back to Ice Cube Jacking for Beats when he's talking about stealing beats from Public Enemy. Those were his friends it was just a joke. Biggie wit Just Playing. 50 Cent with How to Rock. This is hip hop history. There is a lineage of these type of tracks and this is just another chapter in it. But what I want to know is and as a guy you guys have a close relationship Drake worth 100 milly always buying me shit but I don't know if the pussy wet or I'll be crying and shit. Did he call you? He had to have called you and be like, "God damn Nick?" Nicki Minaj: No. I did an interview that's gonna be out in a few hours on TRL they asked me the same thing. No. Rob Markman: Shout to my man Sway. See Sway is my big bro. He's my mentor so he asked the same questions. Nicki Minaj: He's so dope. Yeah you guys think alike. But Drake hasn't called me. Rob Markman: He might be loading one up though. All right you want to have fun you want to play— Nicki Minaj: He bout to have back-to-back? Rob Markman: Y'all gonna leave Drake alone. Nicki Minaj: No I thought that was a dope thing. I thought it was a compliment. It's funny. He has a record called In My Feelings and so I thought he would like it. I thought it would be funny to him. Rob Markman: Nicki do you love me? Listen, and it was also dope to me that you mentioned Meek are you guys cool enough now that you can joke about the relationship like were you worried about how people might take that because what you and Meek had at a point was real. Is it cool enough now that you we can joke about we cool? Nicki Minaj: Well did you see anything happen from me saying it? What? Rob Markman: You know what I did see. I wish I had the picture. There was a meme of a picture of Meek somewhere was like Yo Gotti in the picture like 21 but a bunch a people looking at him like yo you did what? It had nothing to do with he lyric but— Nicki Minaj: It was like you still be in her dms? Rob Markman: Yeah. Y'all be doing too much. Nicki Minaj: I saw that. I saw that. That was funny. Rob Markman: That was dope. Nicki man we can stay here all night because it's just lyrics for days but I want to start kind of winding down I just want to toss it back to you and give you the floor for some final thoughts just anything you want the people to know. If there's a verse or anything that we didn't touch on that I missed that you absolutely love? I asked you to think about your favorite verse and that time you said that's a hard ass question. Nicki Minaj: Well but on this album I really love Ganja Burn because to me that is so personal but still hard and it's very telling of where I was in life for the last couple of years and so I love that one. Come See About Me whenever I play Come See About Me I have to play that shit like 100 times. It's so dope. It's so pretty. The rap one Nip Tuck. Now that is something very serious and very true and every line on it is very real. Very very real. And I feel like that is the verse of the woman in 2018. I feel like every woman needs to get up on that and listen to that verse because we've all felt like that and I ended by saying because a true bad bitch ain't weak or bitter and I think that's so important that women ... it's not about being stupid or accepting things or taking people back or whatever but never being bitter never being bitter always allowing yourself to be able to love again. I find that that's very important in your growth as a human being so never being weak or bitter I felt like that even though that's not like a metaphor or some ill line I think it's very freaking important for people to understand as you're going through life and you're transitioning through relationships. Rob Markman: Now that's dope man. Nicki again like I said I believe in giving people the flowers while they can still smell them. You've done a lot of interviews throughout your career and I wanted to give you an interview like this. Where we talked about the pin because that's why we're all here like for real for real. Hip hop gave us so much. People have jobs because of hip hop careers that life has meaning and purpose and I didn't want to lose sight of that the drama and whatever will always be there but I wanted to have this moment with you and celebrate you in this moment. So thank you for that. Nicki Minaj: I really appreciate you so much and we've been speaking about this for a long time off and on and you kept saying are we gonna do it? I know you thought I wasn't probably gonna do it any more but— Rob Markman: Shit I thought it wasn't gonna happen today. I ain't gonna lie. Nicki Minaj: I'm a woman of my word. I'm a woman of my word but I do want to thank people. I want to thank you and people like you I don't take this for granted like because there's so many people especially with me personally and I don't want to have a pity party I don't want anybody feeling sorry for me. But I just will say that in the era of hate train it's great to have people like you who still understand or can try to understand why I've been a little bit like come one guys are you serious you know so I really appreciate you for being authentic to our culture. We need people like this. People who aren't ... and let me say something I love like I can talk to someone like you or Sway and it's not about dissing someone else. It's about just speaking the truth you know and speaking just in a fair way about facts. Not your opinion or assuming we're trying to throw shade. Just speaking like this in a fair way, factually, and giving it up. I think every single artist in the industry right now did something about them to be celebrated. Every one. So we're different. We have our strengths but to me with Takashi I mentioned him in another interview. You can say whatever you want to say about him right but I saw something in him that made me really like him. He was very genuine and of course he's from New York. I've done songs with other new New York rappers. There's no reason why I can't do a song with him. He's a new New York rapper and I remember being a new New York rapper. And so it's like paying it forward. So that's what I did with him so shout out to him. He's charismatic, he's dope, he's not perfect, he's also not like the most lyrical person, he's not Eminem or something but there's stuff that's dope about him too. I'm just saying every artist they should be celebrated. You just can't keep on like tearing people down. I don't know what people get out of that you know. The other thing is that you don't have to compare you don't have to compare people. I don't know if people understand this we all can have our own shine and have our own moment and do our thing and make money and have fans and go on the road and blah blah blah. You are a journalist. You're talking to me today and someone is talking to someone else tomorrow it is what it is. Y'all both doing what y'all love. You know what I mean? But I'm not gonna keep on saying well you know what you're better than Sway or Sway is better than you or you know what you'll never be Sway it's like for what? It doesn't do anything for anyone just let niggas rock. At the same time you can't be mad at an artist for being over protective of their craft and of their industry. I take pride in what I do. I take pride in writing. That's like a basketball player I'm pretty sure Steph Curry takes pride in being able to throw his three shots— Rob Markman: It's called a three pointer Nicki. Nicki Minaj: A Three pointer shut up right. Rob Markman: Google it. Nicki Minaj: Shut up. I'm pretty sure that Steph Curry takes pride in that right and he should be celebrated for that. That's his thing. He's not Michael Jordan. I'm sure he could work his way to that but he's not Michael Jordan. But doesn't mean that he's not dope, he's not great, he's not in the process of becoming great, blah blah blah. You know. Swish swish. Look I'm mentioning him I'm mentioning him in my songs. So he's making a mark. I remember when I was just coming in people didn't want me to shine. They didn't understand what I was doing. They didn't understand the voices. They didn't understand how I was dressing. They didn't understand what the hell. You know. And now it's like to the point where it's like you know. So you make your mark eventually but you just understand that everybody not gonna like you. I wish I wouldn't have taking things so personal in the beginning when people were judging me because I understand now that's like that some people they don't know how to speak on anyone without comparing. They don't know how to speak on people without ripping one apart or so I'm just like okay that's your thing. But that's you. That's not me. I shouldn't have to examine myself and that's why I said this will be the last album that I feel the need to do it. This will be the last promo run that I feel the need to have to do that. I've said what I needed to say at this point. Now it's about enjoying the music. Can I just say shout to my fans 85 fucking countries number one. Like after being ripped apart and teared down and then you put out an album and it goes number one in 85 counties breaking a new record. And I mean that's something to be proud of and I'm very proud of it. I thank God. I thank my fans. You guys stood by me. You guys waited for such a long time for this album. So I want to thank you. You're such a small number in this room but you represent to me millions of people around the world who are fucking loyal and dope. So I wish you guys the best in your careers and your futures as well. Push yourself as well. Okay. Rob Markman: And with that. Nicki Minaj. Lyrical Queen. Give it up. Love you Nick. Nicki Minaj: Thank you. I love you guys so much. Thank you.