Credit: Alamy

What’s there to be said about Nicki Minaj that hasn’t been said before? The Queen of Rap is a living legend that, at the age of 43, has already lived a hundred lives through her record-breaking career. She’s the world’s best-selling female rapper by any data; she’s one of the world’s most iconic musicians this century, by any metric. She’s got three Guinness World Records under her belt and is considered one of the most important and influential hip-hop artists in history.

So it’s incredibly validating having the career of Nicki Minaj. Assumedly. But where do you go from Mount Olympus? Is there anyone left with achievements that can top that of one of the most successful musicians of our age?

With only a few artists left that can outrank Minaj, it would be fair to wonder where the Trinidadian rapper can go for inspiration. One place she can find it – and, as it turns out, has found it throughout her career, from her earliest days – is within the discography of Jay-Z.

“I think everybody knows how obsessed I am with Jay Z,” she said in a 2014 interview with Power 106 radio station. “He’s always been my favourite rapper – him and [Lil] Wayne. He did such a great job of creating this Blueprint brand for male rappers, I felt. And I studied a lot of his blueprint, just in terms of becoming a mogul.”

“”I wanted to do that, I wanted to be like Jay Z,” Minaj continued. “I felt like with what I’m doing, I want female rappers to be able to pattern themselves with what I’ve done one day. And I think the album is so classic, it’s gonna feel so good and it will probably be one that female rappers will look to as a ‘pink print’ for years to come.”

As fans – well, as anyone with a working radio or Spotify Charts playlist in 2014 – will know, Minaj’s third album The Pinkprint was released at the end of 2014. The album was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Album, and peaked at number two on the US Billboard 200.

The album’s singles were just as remarkable than the album. “Anaconda” was the first music video for a female rapper to hit a billion views, breaking the 24-hour streaming record on Vevo on its first day of release; the Grammy nominated track “Truffle Butter” peaked at number 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100, thus extending her existing lead as the woman with the third most appearances on the charts at that time.

Not at all a bad homage to Jay, then. But this is hip-hop: it would be naïve to assume it’s all been exclusively kosher dealings between the two. In October this year, Minaj took to X to alert the world that she was planning on pulling a forthcoming album.

Name-checking Jay-Z himself, the rapper wrote “not going to put the album out anymore. No more music. Hope you’re happy now,” tagging Jay-Z’s own X handle to close the surprise announcement. She had also referred to Jay’s label Roc Nation as “cock nation”. This is all potentially – if not assumedly – related to claims that she is owned up to $200 million for her stake in Jay Z’s streaming service, Tidal.

Talk about a blueprint!