Nicki Minaj recalls a time when she asked Kanye West about teaming up for his Yeezy shoe line. Joe Budden TV/YouTube; MEGA; GetNicki Minaj could’ve been team Yeezy.
The “Monster” rapper sat down for a YouTube interview with Joe Budden on Wednesday, sharing that she’d previously been turned down by Kanye West for a collaboration on his Yeezy clothing line.
Revealing to the media personality that she’d reached out to West about a female Yeezy venture, the “Super Bass” singer discussed how she’d received a deal from Fendi and wanted to work with Kanye on a project.
In the interview, Minaj, 39, said she told West, “Hey look, I’m about to do something and I just wanted to make sure I spoke to you first,” but the idea didn’t exactly go down as planned.
According to the chart-topper, “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 should probably go to my wife.’”
The fashion line conversation, which took place before West and Kardashian split, left Minaj wondering why someone who “was very vocal about the fashion industry not letting him in at one time,” would deny another black music star the same chance.
“So if a black female rapper who you know has just shown herself to be sellable in that space — and this is not from Joe Schmoe from down the block this is from Fendi saying ‘right, all of these things fall right off the shelf’ — then when 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.”
Making it clear that she was understanding about the situation, the singer added she didn’t know what Kardashian ever thought about the idea as she wasn’t involved in the discussion.
Her super glam silver and pink line with Fendi was released in 2019 and included bodycon dresses, skimpy bikinis, sheer skirts and more sexy looks meant to flatter all body types.
And, it’s clear there’s no bad blood between Nicki and Kimye as the former recently modeled the Skims and Fendi collaboration on her Instagram and showed off a slew of miniature Yeezy shoes the Adidas team sent for her son when he was born in 2020.
Sporting her signature diamond-encrusted “Barbie” necklace, the Burberry-clad rapper also discussed being a female rapper in a largely male-dominated industry in the nearly two-hour-long chat.
Discussing the influence her style has had on female rappers, Minaj said how she “never [saw] any female rapper wearing pink hair” and then suddenly, “pink hair became part of that starter kit.”
“Every female rapper will put on a pink wig at some point,” the “Starships” singer said. “And I remember that was just the Nicki Minaj thing … now it’s everybody: pink wig, thick ass.”
