Nicki Minaj disclosed in her latest interview that she almost had a Yeezy collaboration with Kanye West, but the business idea never came to life because the fashion mogul declined to work with her in favor of his now ex-wife Kim Kardashian.
Nicki Minaj had previously disclosed that she had done a feature with Kanye for the song “New Body,” but Kanye West never released it, and he hasn’t given a response as to why. Now, the latest revelation by Minaj has Barbz fans chewing out Kanye and coming up with their theories as to why Ye did not allow Minaj the Yeezy collab.
Nicki Minaj sat down with Joe Budden, where she spoke about several things, including fashion and her successful partnership with Fendi after the success of her 2018 song “Chun-Li.” The song had the iconic line giving props to the brand, which led to the collab.
“Once ‘Chun-Li’ came out and I said ‘Fendi prints on,’ all the girls started posting and saying ‘Fendi prints on,’ so Fendi gave me a deal,” Nicki recalled.
The fashion drop took place in 2019 and was so successful that it was sold out almost immediately and had to be restocked several times.
Nicki Minaj, who is known as a fashion trendsetter in hip hop and has a large fanbase, said she approached West for a Yeezy collab as she showed him how successful her brand is and its ability to sell.
“I told Kanye about that,” she told Joe Budden. “I was like, ‘Hey look, I’m about to do something and I just wanted to make sure I spoke to you first’.”
She says Kanye told her he would have wanted to give such an opportunity to his wife if he was going to work with other female celebrities.
“He was like, ‘Well, if I did something with you, I think my wife probably wouldn’t love that idea because I should be giving that to my wife instead, if I was doing a female version of the Yeezys or whatever, it probably should go to my wife.’”
Minaj said she could see the rapper’s reason, but she was taken aback by him nonetheless as she felt that he was gatekeeping despite being the one to complain in the past that black talent had a hard time breaking out in Hollywood.
“Kanye was very vocal about the fashion industry not letting him in at one time,” Nicki Minaj laments. “So if a Black female whom you know has just shown herself to be sellable in that space…I come to you as a Black man that I look up to, I’m doing that because you inspired me because you said the fashion industry didn’t want to let us in even though we’re so influential.”
Minaj shared the lesson she learned from that experience that black folks needed to support each other and not just benefit from opportunities for themselves.
Kanye West’s ex, Kim Kardashian, recently had a successful Fendi x Skims collab with her shapewear company.
In the meantime, fans reacted to the comments by Minaj as they dragged Kanye.
“First new body and now this, cool,” one fan wrote on Instagram.
“That highlighter pink Yeezys would have been fire,’ another said as they referenced Nicki’s signature pink look from her wigs and lipstick.
“Complaining about making room for his people then slighting a BW to give it to a white rich family. I know it’s his wife but still….” Another fan added while another said, “Not the first he has been funny towards her.”