Undoubtedly, hip-hop’s latest queen, Nicki Minaj, owes a great debt of gratitude to Lil Wayne, who discovered her and nurtured her weirdo style, propelling the Young Money starlet to the head of the pack and the top of the charts. Now, in the latest issue of Interview, Minaj discusses her relationship with Wayne and why she can’t fathom life without him.
“I don’t ever want to imagine that. I can’t even imagine my career, um, my creative spirit without Wayne,” said Minaj. “I credit him with a lot of what I do. Prior to him, no one relevant in hip-hop really gave me that support. I feel like I’m still intertwined with him creatively.”
As Minaj explains, before meeting Wayne, those guiding her career told her to stifle the thing that has made her such a beloved fan favorite; her wild and bizarre personality.
“Before I met Wayne, the person that was spearheading my career was the one person who always told me, “Don’t be too playful, don’t be too kooky and weird … no one’s gonna feel that, nobody wants to hear that,” explained Minaj. “So I stifled a lot of that early on, and then once that we parted ways, I was like, ‘Guess what, I’m gonna just be me.’ ”
Besides sharing quirky personalities, Minaj explains that part of the reason Wayne respects her is because of their shared desire to be listed among hip-hop’s elite lyricists.
“Even though Wayne is my mentor, I’ve never gone to Wayne and asked him, ‘Hey Wayne, could you write me a rap?’ That makes me just like one of the boys, you know? My work ethic is just like their work ethic, and I don’t have to wait on them to tell me to what to say. And I think that’s a big part of it,” she said.
What do you think of Minaj’s comments about Wayne? –nicholas robinson
