Nicki Minaj has been quietly making moves for her next grand release.
After Nicki Minaj delivered the much-anticipated follow-up to 2012's Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded with the intumescent and ambitious 22-track studio release of The Pinkprint, haters and the #Barbz alike struggled with the rapper continuing to straddle the pop/hip-hop binary. Eager for the Queens-bred femcee to hang up the multi-colored wigs and ditch Nicki Lewinsky, Roman Zolanski and the Harajuku Barbie once and for all, Minaj stans salivated over the prospect of remixes and singles like the Lil Herb-assisted "Chi-raq" signaling the rapper's return to her gilded mixtape era. Rallying for Minaj's bars to reference the Southside Jamaica/gritty Queens vibe reminiscent of her Smack DVD days over a spinning carousel of Top 40/Euro dancehall hits, fans were eager that tracks like "Lookin Ass" would put an end to the conflation of "Starships" and actual hip-hop.
The Pinkprint undeniably demands an expectation adjustment from even the most seasoned Minaj fan, putting aside the well-known "I'm a brand bitch, I'm a brand" bar-dropping entrepreneur in constant competition with the New York-battle rapper to make way for the rise of Onika Maraj. Treating fans to much more than just fleeting glimpses of her private life, Minaj dug deep to deliver an introspective autobiography--the most vulnerable the rapper has been on wax to date. Remedying the lackluster additions of the lilting Dr. Luke-assisted "Pills N Potions" ballad with an impressive sextet of bonus tracks boasting fire tracks like "Shanghai" and "Big Daddy" featuring Meek Mill, The Pinkprint is equal parts daring and ambitious--merging her gritty, battle-rap beginnings with the ultra-polished pop production that catapulted Minaj to international stardom.
With such a stark contrast between Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded and The Pinkprint, fans are eager to digest this new era of Minaj's discography--an epic body of work four years in the making that the rapper dubbed as her most impressive collection yet.
“You know what?” This era will be a billion times more epic than anything ‘Anaconda’ could have delivered," said Minaj in a late 2017 interview for Dazed magazine. "I think this era will definitely be the most memorable and the most impactful of my career yet.”
“I’ve made it my business with this album to not even put a date or a deadline on it,” she said. “I can’t say if I’m fifty-per-cent, eighty-per-cent or ten-per-cent done, because I don’t know. Tomorrow, I might walk into the studio and decide that I don’t like anything I’ve done in the last six months. Or, tomorrow I might walk in and feel like the whole album is done. There’s so much beauty in not knowing. I just want to go in the studio and create like I used to, before there were any expectations. You know? When I was just having fun, working on my mixtapes, going in and creating... writing my little life.”
From breakups, feuds and chart-ranking singles to a complete social media silence in 2018, check out what Minaj has been up to following the release of her latest studio album.
Philanthropy
Where Is Nicki Minaj? Tracking Her Movements Since "The Pinkprint"
While Minaj stayed largely silent about her time in the studio, her money still talked a big game for her. In May 2017, Minaj caused a social media storm by offering to pay large chunks of the tuition bills of her followers.
Show me straight A's that I can verify w/ur school and I'll pay it. Who wants to join THAT contest?!?!🤷🏽♀️ Dead serious. Shld I set it up? https://t.co/czH715u64a
"This makes me so happy. [A few from the other day] I'll do another impromptu payment spree in a month or 2 but pls know that I'm launching my official charity for Student Loans/Tuition Payments VERY SOON! You'll be able to officially sign up! I'll keep you posted!" Minaj wrote in an Insta caption aimed at providing receipts for her sudden burst of generosity.
"This is the kind of thing that makes me feel the most proud," she admitted. In addition, the rapper also answered comedian Kevin Hart's social media challenge and donated 25 racks to the Hurricane Harvey relief fund.
Where Is Nicki Minaj? Tracking Her Movements Since "The Pinkprint"
Nicki Minaj's longtime on-again, off-again romance with Safaree Samuels ultimately came to an end on October 22, 2014. While the split was rumored to be a result of Samuels' jealousy over Minaj's continued success, the "Paradise" rapper set the record straight when stopping by for an interview with Power 105.1's The Breakfast Club. "I walked away. I'm not going to say I broke up, but I'm the one who walked away. I packed up my stuff and I left," he said. "I just got to the point where the respect wasn't there. Everyone around her works for her, you know? So it got the point where it was like, I'm your man. I'm who you go to sleep with every night. I'm who you wake up with every morning. And it got to the point where I was being treated like an employee, instead of like her man."
Following her breakup from Samuels, Minaj moved on to a romance with Philly-rooted rapper Meek Mills, who was featured twice on her third studio album The Pinkprint. Despite engagement and pregnancy rumors hovering around the couple throughout the entirety of their relationship, Meek and Minaj called it quits in late 2016, allegedly due to the "In My Bag" rapper's infidelity.
Singles And Features
Where Is Nicki Minaj? Tracking Her Movements Since "The Pinkprint"
Along with trolling fans in 2016 with the Pick My Fruit Out record tease (although we WOULD love to hear the self-proclaimed Black Barbie spit bars on "Mango," "Watermelon" and "Bananas (Harambe interlude)," Minaj has been busy in the studio cranking out feature spots and solo cuts despite the absence of a fourth release. In addition to her fire verse on Major Lazer's "Run Up" alongside PartyNextDoor in January 2017 in which she directly alludes to her next studio release, ("'Bout to drop an album/This is my fourth") Minaj kept the mic hot with three new singles in March 2017. After famously reuniting with the YMCMB crew, the rapper dropped "Changed It" featuring Lil Wayne, "Regret In Your Tears" and "No Frauds" featuring Wayne and Drake--a direct response to rival Remy Ma's longwinded "shETHER" diss track. With Ma spitting venom as a result of Minaj dragging the rapper on her featured verses in Jason DeRulo's "Swalla" and Gucci Mane's "Make Love," the beef between the two femcees soon devolved into a battle over PR-- not who won the proverbial crown as the uncontested "queen of rap."
Throughout the rest of 2017, Minaj dropped bars on a number of commercially successful singles, including Migos' "MotorSport" alongside hip-hop newcomer Cardi B, Yo Gotti's "Rake It Up," Katy Perry's "Swish Swish," two tracks on DJ Khaled's Grateful, Calvin Harris' "Skrt On Me" and ASAP Ferg's "Plain Jane (Remix)."
Social Media Silence
Where Is Nicki Minaj? Tracking Her Movements Since "The Pinkprint"
In 2018, Minaj ghosted on all of her social media accounts with her last Instagram upload coming through on December 30, 2017 (comments disabled, of course.) Stressed out by the rapper's Internet hiatus, the #Kingdom (formerly known as the #Barbz) set to work on tracking Minaj down.
Thankfully, TMZ captured a quick video clip of the "Feeling Myself" rapper waving at fans outside of L.A.’s Chateau Marmont Hotel after attending an Oscar’s after-party hosted by Beyoncé and Jay-Z.
Ultimately, Minaj is concerned with keeping her new content close to her chest until she's sure she's created a body of work fitting of a years-long hiatus. "I needed time to hear myself think again because where I left off with The Pinkprint was a little bit emotionally unstable," the rapper revealed during a sit-down with Nylon magazine. "I wanted to take a moment to just live my life, enjoy my life, have fun, go out. I think that’s very important before you start writing again. It’s a spiritual experience for the people who are hearing the music, so I’m trying to be very careful of what mental space I’m in while I’m creating it. Now, I want my happiness to be reflected in the new stuff.”
