In a new interview with “The Rickey Smiley Morning Show” Nicki Minaj opened up about working with Beyonce on the remix to “Flawless” and reactions to her “Anaconda” single artwork.
Speaking briefly on Remy Ma’s return from prison, Minaj again paid respect to her fellow New Yorker.
“I just think she was such a dope emcee while she was here,” she said. “And she was definitely one of the females I looked up to at that time. More power to her.”
Declining to talk about the singer’s rumored divorce from Jay Z, Minaj instead spoke about the opportunity to work with Beyonce on the remix to “Flawless.”
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“She is the Queen,” Minaj said. “I was so honored to work with her. She’s somebody that I’ve looked up to my entire career. If anybody that knows anything about me knows that I’ve been literally probably shouting Beyonce out in every interview since my mixtape days just ‘cause she’s so driven and I love her drive. I love what she means for women. She’s an inspiration to women who wanna get out there and bust their ass and work hard. This has definitely been a life-changing experience for me. Shout out to B.”
The rapper also responded to the flood of “Anaconda” artwork memes, saying, “they been crossing the line.”
“They been doing the craziest stuff,” she added. “I done seen Princess Jasmine, Kermit the Frog, Peter Griffin. Everybody you could think of in that pose.”
Asked about the inspiration behind the title of the single, Nicki revealed that “Anaconda” was a last minute substitute for a different name.
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“Well, it was always one of my favorite lines from the song,” she said of the “Baby Got Back” sample. “So when I was in the studio with the producer I was like, ‘You know what, I wanna sample the anaconda part of the Sir Mix-a-Lot song.’ Originally the song was gonna be called ‘Big Fat Ass.’ At that last minute I changed it.”
While on the radio show the Pink Friday rapper also mentioned putting further acting roles on hold until the release of the new album.
“You know what, there’s actually something that I’m working on that I don’t wanna say too much about,” she said. “That’s something that’s definitely on my radar but every time I’m working on an album I just try to make that the focal point…I doubt highly that I’m gonna do a real movie role again before that album is completed. But after it I would love to because I had a lot of fun on the movie set.”
On her transition away from the colorful wigs that defined her public image throughout part of her career, Minaj suggested her more recently “scaled back look” is more relatable.
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“I just always felt that by the third album I would be wearing my real hair,” she said. “It was something that I had discussed with my team a long time ago which is crazy. I think that the scaled back look makes people relate to me a lot more. So I’m definitely loving that part about it.”
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