This weekend, Nicki Minaj had the Internet swirling with rumors she’d drop a new album when she, well, tweeted she would. But then she made the blog-o-sphere pump the brakes when she revealed the tracklist:
Tracklist:
1. Mango
2. Cherry
3. Watermelon
4. Bananas (harambe interlude)
5. Grapes
6. Raspberries
7. Kiwi
8. Pineapple
9. Fruit Loops— NICKI MINAJ (@NICKIMINAJ) October 9, 2016
The one I’m most excited about, however, is track #10. It’s called Nigga toss my fruit salad and it features my favorite rapper of all time
— NICKI MINAJ (@NICKIMINAJ) October 9, 2016
So, no, she didn’t release an album, but this week, she’s done a bit of promo in the form of a cover story for Marie Claire, which bodes well for those who hope she’ll drop an album soon. (Usually magazine covers don’t come unless an album is also nearing.)
The cover story will appear in the November issue of Marie Claire, but the magazine released a couple quotes from the story ahead of time to get readers interested in what else Ms. Minaj has to say.
On working with Beyoncé:
“Every time Bey and I do something together, I see how women are inspired, and it has nothing to do with how we look. It has to do with how we are owning who we are and telling other women you should be the boss of your own career and the brains behind your life or your decisions or your art. I just love that feeling.”
On competing with male rappers in a male-dominated world:
“I don’t need to read a book about [business]. I can look at someone’s career and just pinpoint the dos and the don’ts, and the one person I’ve done that with for my entire career was Jay Z. He did such a great job being an authentic street guy and a businessman, and I was like, Why aren’t there women doing that, taking the success from rap and channeling it into their empire? I felt like anything he could do, I could do.”
On what she feels young women should aspire for:
“Nowadays, I feel like [young women] see marrying into money—I think that’s a big thing now. I don’t want that to be a woman’s goal in life. I want your goal in life to be to become an entrepreneur, a rich woman, a career-driven woman. You have to be able to know that you need no man on this planet at all, period, and he should feel that, because when a man feels that you need him, he acts differently.”
On violence in the U.S.:
“We tend to not remember the black women who are mourning these men and who are thinking, Oh, my God, what am I going to tell my child now about where his father is, and the struggle it is for black women to then move on after they lose their husband or their boyfriend … The strong women in these inner cities often go unnoticed … no one really ever puts a hand out to them.”
Check out more photos from her shoot below, and preview more of the cover story on Marie Claire.
