In an interview Nicki Minaj conducted on Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 program where she debuted her singles “Chung-Li and “Barbie Tingz,” Minaj addressed rumors that arose after she was featured on “MotorSport,” a Migos single that included a feature by Cardi B.
Lowe first asked Minaj to address rumors she was taking shots at Cardi B in a snippet (listen here) for a song that was recently leaked. “Is that an existing rumor? I had no clue. That particular song I wrote in Paris about a year and a half ago. It was actually for Drake’s last album. That’s to tell you how long ago I wrote that song,” explained Minaj, who wouldn’t say if the song would be included on her upcoming album.
She then added, “Shout out to Cardi and all the new female rappers who’re doing their thing.” Minaj then went on to call out women who show her “genuine love,” listing U.K. rapper Ms. Banks, plus Kash Doll, Asian Doll and Maliibu Miitch.
Moving back to the topic of Cardi B, she went on to express disappointment with how she behaved after the “MotorSport” single was dropped. “The only thing with Cardi that really really really hurt my feelings was the first interview she did after ‘Motorsport’ came out,” said Minaj, adding, “I remember like when I first came in the game If a female of that stature had done a feature with me on it, I would only be you know singing their praises and saying thank you.
“The first interview she did after ‘MotorSport’ came out, it just really hurt me. ‘Cause she looked so aggravated and angry. The only thing she kept saying was, ‘I didn’t hear that verse, I did’t hear that verse. She changed her verse.’ I was like, ‘What??’
“I remember when I first did a song with Trina for the first time, that’s why to this day I still love Trina. She was the first female rapper that acknowledged me behind the scenes and said, ‘I want you to be on my album.’ ‘Til this day you’ve never heard me speak ill of Trina just because of that. That’s very important.
“And so her most recent interview, Cardi, that’s when I just came back on Instagram and I saw it and I felt good, I finally felt she said something genuinely nice about me.”
Minaj also addressed controversy related to the how the track itself was recorded as well as the visual for it. After the song was released, rumors began to circulate Minaj had remixed her vocals mixing in shots at Cardi, which the Bronx rapper allegedly never had a chance to hear. Minaj said she reached out to Quavo to clear her name, but her refused.
“But with ‘MotorSport,’ I kind of felt ambushed,” explained Minaj. “Quavo is my baby. I loved Quavo. At the time, I went on Twitter and explained how ‘MotorSport’ came about. And people were saying that I was lying. So I texted Quavo and said, ‘Just can you back me up on this?’ Because I don’t want people thinking I’m lying. What do I have to lie about?
“And he didn’t back me up. He texted me and he was like, ‘I would go on Twitter and back you up if you were my girl lol.’ And that hurt, because he’s somebody…’cause I love him. There are certain rappers who I call my baby…you know, Quavo, Uzi is my baby, you know, Swae Lee is my baby.
“So Quavo told me ‘I’m not gonna go on Twitter and address that shit. Man, if I do an interview then I’ll address that.’ And I was like, yikes, I was, because it hurt my feelings to know that people would watch me be slaughtered and not one person will step in to say the truth. They will run with that lie because it’s entertaining to make Nicki seem like a bad guy. And it’s sad.
“Quavo texted me. I still have the text in my phone. First of all, Quavo came to my studio and played ‘MotorSport.’ He was the only person on ‘MotoSport.’ I said, ‘Oh, that’s a hit, that’s outta here. I want get on that one.’ He wanted me to get on a record called ‘For Keeps.’ I said, ‘No, please, please, please, please let’s do Motorsport.’
“He came back after and said, you know all the guys want to be on ‘MotorSport.’ And I was like okay, yea I figured that.’ I knew that much, I knew they were all working on their group album. And he texted me, he said, ‘Is it okay if I put Cardi on it,’ and I still have the text on my phone where I said, ‘Yea, let’s do it.’ And that’s the only story I told. I said exactly how it came about.”
She also dug into criticism that she chose not to appear on the video with Cardi, explaining her hairdresser had a conflict, which Cardi knew because she’s now using the same stylist.
“And when it came time to clear the air about that. No one did that. All of them allowed me to look like I lied and you know even with the scheduling conflict. She’s using my hairdresser now. So even he can attest to the fact, Tokyo, he knows that there really was a scheduling conflict and it was because of him.
“He’s the one that couldn’t show up. I texted him and said, ‘You know if I don’t show up the day she’s shooting, they’re going to act like it’s, like I’m doing it to be mean,’ you know with the current Nicki hate train.
“He wasn’t able to come and he had something to do and that’s fine. So I had to shoot another day. They all knew that, especially if you’re using my hairdresser now, he can attest to that. And you still did interviews and y’all still jumped around that just to paint Nicki as the bad person so you could play the victim and that really really hurt me. Because I really, fully supported her.
“And up until this recent interview that she did I had never seen her show me genuine love in an interview. I can just imagine how many girls wished they could have been on a song with Nicki Minaj. I mean, I’m not saying it in a cocky way but like…yikes…I’m not saying that in a cocky way…the first thing out of your mouth when someone asks you about a Nicki Minaj feature is, ‘She changed her verse!’ Excuse me? It’s because of the Nicki Minaj hate parade that she felt the comfortability to address me in that manner.
Check out the full exchange below.
