The rapper Kanye West admitted “kicked my ass”
Kanye West, as self-confident as he is, rarely admits defeat. However, in an interview with the online magazine The Tab, West admitted that there was one emcee who “kicked [his] ass” on a record which made him consider pulling the collaboration altogether.
In 2010, while recording his album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Ye’s then-girlfriend, Amber Rose, introduced him to the latest sensation of female rap, Nicki Minaj and suggested Kanye collaborate with her.
On Rose’s advice, West decided to send Nicki the instrumental for ‘Monster,’ one of the album’s hit tracks. However, the Chicago native was not expecting Minaj to be such a formidable lyricist, and when he heard her verse, he considered taking her off the track due to shame.
‘Monster’ featured heavyweights such as Rick Ross and Jay-Z. As such, it was one of the first times Minaj had been on a record toe-to-toe with just men. That said, the line-up only made her more determined to prove she could rap better than any man, including West.
The College Dropout creator wasn’t expecting the flawless wordplay he received from Minaj. Despite the song’s star power, he worried that the Pink Friday rapper had stolen his thunder. As such, in a knee-jerk reaction, he contemplated pulling Nicki off the song completely.
Recalling the moment he heard Minaj’s contribution to ‘Monster,’ West told The Tab, “I thought about taking Nicki’s verse off of ‘Monster’ because I knew people would say that was the best verse on the best Hip-Hop album of all time or arguably top ten albums of all time,”
He continued, “I would do all that work, eight months of work on Dark Fantasy and people to this day would say to me, ‘My favourite thing was Nicki Minaj’s verse.’” His fear of being eclipsed by Minaj was real. However, he ultimately decided to keep her on.
During his conversation with the publication, West called hearing her verse one of the most memorable moments from the album’s creation, unveiling, “One of the most memorable things about MBDTF was Nicki Minaj, and the fact that she kicked my ass, on my own song, on one of the best albums…the best album — I’m just saying what the critics said — of the last 25 years,”
He even likened her win over him to being exile from his own track, continuing, “I was exiled from my country, it was a personal exile, but exile. To come back and deliver my magnum opus of a work, and to be outshined … to be beaten by a girl, basically.”
He concluded by insisting it needed to happen for the sake of hip-hop, finishing, “This was necessary. I think it was one of the most important points of working on that album was to not stop her from her moment because of how good she is … She was able to go on and become successful, and fly, and run, and dream, and provide. And it was not locked because of my career.”