Nicki Minaj Talks ‘The Pink Print’, Anaconda Backlash, Drake Getting Out The Friend Zone & More w/Complex

Posted November 18, 2014

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Nicki Minaj is just weeks away from the unveiling of her new album ‘The Pink Print’ (December 15) and to further her promo campaign the rapper sat down with Complex magazine for a revealing interview and photo spread shot by Vijat Mohindra.

In the interview Nicki reveals how her relationship with her family has suffered due to her hectic schedule and career, why ‘The Pink Print’ is her most personal album to date, the critique she received from the ‘Anaconda’ video and more. Peep some of the excerpts below.

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You’ve said The Pinkprint will be your most personal album yet. What are you addressing about your past and present that you haven’t before?

My family, loss, death, guilt…. I’ve struggled with a lot of guilt.

Your family is still in New York City?

Right, and I live in L.A., so when I wake up in the morning, I can’t just run across the street and hug my mother, hug my little brother, kiss my little brother or older brother. I have to get on a six-hour flight to see them, and then, even when I go to New York, I’m lucky if I can see them for a couple hours. I go to New York all the time and I’m so ashamed to say that I could be out there for a few days and not even be able to see my family because of my schedule. I don’t even get lunch penciled in my schedule. Sleep is out of the question—everything seems to become more important.

Jay Z’s The Blueprint inspired the title The Pinkprint and the idea of laying the blueprint for female rappers to come. What similarities do you see between you right now and Jay circa The Blueprint?

I can’t. I have no idea what he was doing before The Blueprint dropped. It’s not that literal. People keep asking me about Jay’s The Blueprint and they think I’m doing something like that. I made reference to The Blueprint because Jay is the biggest rapper of our time. The name of the album was inspired by Jay but not the body of work. I do think that it’s going to create new rules, though, in [the way] that [The Blueprint did].

What did you want to accomplish with “Anaconda”?

I wanted to create a song that embraced curvy women. I wanted to be sexual but be playful with it. And I wanted it to be so melodic that even if you don’t understand English you could still go along with the melody and you would have no idea about all the raunchy shit I’m saying—I get a kick out of that. It was simple to write. I just created the melody and then I let the words happen. I started laughing when I said, “Boy toy named Troy.” [Laughs.] That whole song, I was just being dumb. It was a joke. My biggest thing was seeing how my girlfriends Sherika and Thembi were going to react. If they don’t like a song, they’ll be like, “No.” As soon as they walked in the studio, we were laughing and having fun. I thought, if we’re doing this, then everybody is going to have fun with it.

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Peep the full interview HERE

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