Being part of the Young Money team, Nicki Minaj has had the opportunity to study under one of the greatest rappers to ever hold the mic, the one-and-only Lil Wayne. On "Go Hard," an early collaboration from Nicki's beloved Beam Me Up Scotty Mixtape, the just-breaking Queens rapper rapped a few lines about her pupil-like relationship with Wayne.
"I am da ninja. Weezy is my sensei. So I call him Splinter. Faster than a sprinter," she spit on the track.
In a new post on Instagram, Nicki has shared a story behind those lines in particular. According to Minaj, Wayne was impressed by her verse, though he did have some very specific feedback.
"I'll never forget saying this line from one of my Mixtapes to Wayne maybe 8 or 9 years ago," she wrote. "He's on the freestyle with me called Go HARD. it was my first time listening to it WITH him in the same room. Same studio right here in Miami. He looked me dead in the eyes and in that (whisper voice), he smiled & said "I fuk wit it Nick, but the only thing is that... Splinter was a RAT. And we don't FUK wit no RATSSSSSSS"."
For those unfamiliar, Master Splinter is character in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles who mentors the turtles. He also happens to be a giant mutant sewer rat.
Given Wayne's well-documented love of wordplay, we're not surprised this was his first thought when he heard the line. Either way, he gave the bar the green light, though he would set the record straight years later on "Rich As Fuck," where he rapped, "All rats gotta die, even Master Splinter."
As for Nicki, she seemed pretty entertained by the whole thing, calling Wayne the "FKN GOAT." Later on, she doubled down on Wayne's "no rats" policy. "#NoFrauds #NoSnitch Why do niggaz claim the streets then act just like the law? 👮🏼Riddles that I can not seem to solve, man," she wrote.
Read Nicki's full post below. Nicki and Wayne recently collaborated on David Guetta's "Light My Body Up."