NEW INTERVIEW: NICKI MINAJ (@nickminaj)

The young homie @pmbenson33 had the opportunity to chop it up with ms Nicki Minaj For Part 1 of the interview click here.

Here is part 2:
NLW: Ok, that gets into my next question. I’ve been really meaning to ask you this one. You recently did an interview with XXL and it spoke deeply to us because you said “I’ve got my mind on my money and I’m not going anywhere.” Can you explain to us your business savvy and how that took importance to you in getting your priorities straight so that you’d have a good future? Because I know you have the song on ‘Beam Me Up Scotty’ and you’ve always been a business-savvy woman, how did that play into the decision?

Nicki: Yeah well it plays a part because if it didn’t play a huge part, I would have signed already. You know what I mean? A big part of the reason why I didn’t sign is because I know that whenever you do something you have to look at yourself as merchandise as stock and you know obviously you wanna wait as long as you can before you sell your stock right? That’s how you make your money and thats what I was doing with my brand. Nicki Minaj is a brand to me and I wake up in the morning and I think I am Nicki Minaj, and Nicki Minaj is one of my brands I promote and so I wanted her to get bigger and get more, you know, notoriety before I decided we weren’t going to sign because obviously the record companies would then have to step their dicks up and so that in a nutshell should explain it. I mean I’ve always been a business-savvy person but I think more importantly you know business savvy as a female goes hand in hand with knowing your worth, and let me just say not as a female, in general. If you know your worth, you bargain because you feel like “Hey, if I give you me, you get something that is A 1, top notch. So you have to show me that you know that I’m worth that.” And I think that in a nutshell is really where I stand with this.

NLW: I know you’ve been doing mixtapes in anticipation for the debut album. Who can we plan to see on the album outside of the Young Money family?

Nicki: All of my biggest records that I’ve done so far for the album have been just me alone. I don’t really know if I wanna do too many features for my album because I think my mixtapes have been you know inundated with features and people need to know who Nicki Minaj is now. And as of right now as far as producers I have a lot of up and coming producers and I’m not big on you know big name producers although I’d love to work with Will.I.Am and as far as artists go you know I just don’t know at this point I love people like Natasha Bedingfield, I love her singing voice and Amy Winehouse’s singing voice and I’d like to gear my album probably towards pop so probably if anything I’ll have a lot of those type of features on it. But not too much rap because I am a rap girl and thats what I do and I don’t think I need to have many different rappers on my album.

NLW: In terms of work on some of the newer albums, will you be featured on Wayne’s Carter 4 or the Rebirth? I know you’ve been doing a lot of work for the Young Money Compilation album.

Nicki: Yeah, you know, let’s say that I recorded a very insane track with Wayne for the Rebirth and I don’t want to give away any surprises he may have for us so let’s just say as of right now I don’t know but I did a dope record with him that should be on the Rebirth and let’s just see what happens.

NLW: With your huge fanbase, especially female and Ken Barbies, how do you find yourself adjusting lyrics to make them suitable for teenagers?

Nicki: Well what I’ve been doing is when I write verses I try to think “Hmm, how can I write a verse without getting bleeped out on the radio” and kinda stream myself that way and once I do that it winds up being cool for the teenage base and then just ninja Barbies cause there’s not a lot of cursing and crazy stuff. And in doing so I’ve realized that I don’t have to curse all the time, I don’t have to curse to be swagged out. I think my personality and imagination comes across in my rhymes whether I curse or not. I’ve been cutting it out a little more than normal recently.

NLW: When I look at you as an artist one of the main things that I see right off the bat is your individuality and making a name for yourself on your own. However we do have to ask, if you did have to compare yourself to one female rapper who would it be?

Nicki: I would definitely have to say that I couldn’t say one, you know? I would say if you mixed Lauren [Hill] and [Lil] Kim together and Foxy and Remy and Eve’s business savvy and Monie Love’s accent and you put it in a pot and you just call it Nicki Minaj. I’m influenced by everything in rap that’s ever come before me. At the same time, I’m an individual.

NLW: I know you said that you don’t get to spend as much time with Young Money as you would like to, can you tell us about your relationship with them? Is there one member that you’re closer to than the others?

Nicki: Mack Maine, well he’s my big brother, I talk to him all the time, I love him daily. Drake and I probably are the most compatible as far as just being able to talk and I think when we were on the tour Drake and I were closest because we would talk about our futures and our plans and we have a mutual respect for each other. So I definitely feel very close to him and Mack. Mack Maine is my brother I could talk to him about anything, he makes me feel comfortable and he always makes me feel at ease and so everybody at Young Money they’re like my siblings. But those are the two I’m really close to.

NLW: We know you have a bunch of projects in the works, can you tell us about any future projects? We know you’ve got a jean line and doing some acting in the future, anything to tell your fans to be on the lookout for?

Nicki: Well obviously be on the lookout for the debut album, and I’d like to direct some attention right now to NickiMinajFans.com because a lot of people have been asking me about a website, a great little girl named Ashley put together a fansite for me and she updates it on a regular basis, check that site out because I may get something new tomorrow and it will definitely be on there. But as of right now, I’m working on choosing a single and once we choose the actual single we just have to make sure all the barbies request it on the radio and 106 and all that. That’s the way we’re gonna go, I don’t wanna do too much before my music starts really popping because I think that would just really not make sense. But after my music starts really popping then I’ll do all the other great stuff that I love to do which is acting and even some modeling and not to mention the jean line and all the fashion. I have something else that I’m working on for the Harajuku Barbies, I’m planning on putting a lot of stuff out like Minaj gift bags and it will come with a lot of little goodies for all the barbies when I go out. We’re working on it right now and soon we’ll unveil it.

NLW: You mentioned modeling, we saw some of the footage from your shoot for Dr. Jay’s, it was absolutely great you were swagged out, shout outs for that.

Nicki: Thank you, yes DrJays.com shout out to them and actually I’m the only artist on that campaign that is not signed, and I think that’s big and a lot needs to be said for that I mean I don’t even have a song on the radio, and everything I do its like I’m always compared to big artists and a lot needs to be said and I owe it to the people that support me, like they get out and they make sure that they spread the word about so me I have to thank all of them. Including you, people like you. This interview has been, you’re so knowledgeable, and a lot of people don’t interview me like this, they usually don’t have any background knowledge about me at all. You definitely get a shoutout before I go.

NLW: Thank you so much, and now I have my last question, can we expect to see you on the tour this summer with Young Money?

Nicki: I’ll definitely try my best to make it to every show, a lot of times I have scheduling conflicts but we will be there at least some of the time to support them and I’ll let everyone know on Twitter, as long as you’re following me you’ll know.

*shouts to Newlilwayne.com

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