If she had it her way, Nicki Minaj's performance at the VMAs Monday night would have featured controversial rapper 6ix9ine. As Fader points out, in episode 4 of Queen Radio, Nicki revealed that she had planned to perform 6ix9ine's hit "FeFe" along with him, but despite fighting to have him involved, he was not approved to do the show.
"I wanted him to perform with me at the VMAs and somewhere along the line he didn't get approved to perform by the powers that be," she said. "I don't want anyone to think for a second that I wouldn't invite him to perform his hit record. I want everyone to know my character. I really fought... When I know somebody there's nothing you can tell me about them."
Nicki's performance did feature her verse from "FeFe" as well as other songs from her recently released fourth studio album Queen.
Earlier this week, Nicki Minaj seemed to react to an article from Pitchfork which criticized her for working with 6ix9ine due to the rapper pleading guilty to three felony counts of "use of a child in a sexual performance" in 2015.
"FeFe," 6ix9ine's collaboration with Nicki, is currently at No. 4 on the Hot 100, peaking at No. 3 earlier this month. It is both Nicki's highest-charting song of 2018 and 6ix9ine's highest-charting song of his career. Last week, Nicki added the song as the 20th track on her album Queen multiple days after the project's release.
The latest episode of Queen radio also found Nicki continuing to criticize Travis Scott for using what she feels were unfair tactics to sell records.