The dumbest decision Nicki Minaj ever made: “It is what it is”
Nicki Minaj is one of the most successful artists in the world. The Queens rapper has five albums, including multiple number-one albums and singles. After signing to Lil Wayne’s Young Money label in 2009, Minaj was thrown into the spotlight in 2010 with her debut album, Pink Friday, debuting at the top of the Billboard 200 chart. Despite its worldwide success, she still has some regrets about the project.
The LP was stacked with big-name artists, including Eminem, Rihanna, Drake, will.i.am, and Kanye West, who appeared on the song ‘Blazin’. Ye spit a second verse on the track with references to Mariah Carey, Marc Jacobs, and Karl Lagerfeld, with the Skyz Muzik-produced song racking up over 18 million streams.
In 2017, Minaj revealed she freestyled the chorus and that Kanye wanted to be featured on ‘Right Thru Me’ instead of ‘Blazin’. Eventually, she convinced him to get on the other song, but she came to regret that decision.
“Hooks I freestyled in the studio: ‘Blazin.’ Fun fact: Kanye REALLY wanted to get on RIGHT THRU ME. I had to beg him to change his mind,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter), adding, “I wish I would’ve obliged. But at the time it was just such a personal song to me. He really loved it. Lol. Crazy right?”
Minaj addressed the dilemma again during a live broadcast on TikTok and admitted it was the worst decision she’s ever made. “I love ‘Blazin’ too,” she began. “I don’t know if you guys have heard this story about ‘Blazin,’ but I wanted Kanye to be on ‘Blazin’ and he wanted to be on ‘Right Thru Me’. Dumbest fucking decision I ever made to but it is what it is.”
Produced by Drew Money, ‘Right Thru Me’ was released as a single and peaked at number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100. The music video boasts over 118 million YouTube views and 54 million Spotify streams. Minaj has previously spoken about how much the song means to her, serving as the first time she was open about a real relationship.
“The song to me is very, very personal,” she told ET. “I haven’t spoken about an authentic relationship since I’ve come out. Not everybody is rich, not everyone likes jewellery, not everybody likes playing dress-up, but everyone has been in a relationship at some point in their lives, so when you hear a relationship song, it’s like, you react.”
Minaj also collaborated with Kanye on ‘Monster’ in 2010, which appeared on the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album. According to Minaj, Ye almost didn’t include her verse on the song because he didn’t want her bars to outshine his project.
“Kanye called me to tell me Jay put a verse on this song & that he was still deciding if he would put it on his album,” she wrote on Instagram. “Haha. It was like an hour-long call where I tried to convince him to let the song stay on his album. He felt this verse would end up being the talk of the album. I said: YOU’RE KANYE WEST!!!!”