Nicki Minaj Talks Summer Jam, Foxy Brown, & Free Show on 'The Breakfast Club'
After her lengthy conversation with Funkmaster Flex on Monday evening, Nicki Minaj called into Hot 97 competitor Power 105 on Tuesday morning. She spoke with “The Breakfast Club’s” DJ Envy, Charlamagne Tha God, and Angela Yee about Summer Jam, her friendship with Foxy Brown, rumors that she was planning a funeral for Lil’ Kim onstage, and the free concert she’s organizing to make it up to her fans. Hear what Nicki had to say below.
On her Summer Jam pullout: “After all this has been said and done, I wasn’t gonna do ‘Starships’ and I think people know that. I’m way smarter than that. I know what people wanted to see. I think it was just someone trying to be sarcastic, but like every other artist said, it was horrible timing, it was in bad taste. Everybody makes mistakes, but you’ve got to own your mistake. When you don’t own it, then you feel like you can do this in the future and get away with it.”
On support from her peers: “Even artists that were supposed to come out on my set were asked to perform and they said, ‘If Nicki’s not on that stage, then I’m not on that stage and we gonna ride out on loyalty tonight.’ We all salute Lauryn [Hill] and she gave an amazing statement about this whole thing and no one has said anything. Nas retweeted that, [Fabolous] tweeting last night, and Cam and Fox showed me so much love that same night. This is something that’s horrible and it needs to be addressed.”
On her friendship with Foxy Brown: “I reached out to her a few months ago. This has been going on for a very long time. She’s always been a part of the lineup and I’ve known I’m doing doing Summer Jam for maybe a year now. People are very crazy if they think this is something that I just decided. … I just really always loved her. I always made it known how much I loved her and Lauryn Hill. When she found out the whole drama, I thought she was gonna be disappointed, but instead she called me like, ‘Yo Nick, I am riding with you. We are all here. We’re not leaving this hotel. We support your decision.’ Everybody supported the decision. Everybody was like, ‘Yo, Wayne is completely right and we made the right move.'”
On rumors that she was planning a funeral for Lil’ Kim during her Summer Jam set: “Absolutely not. … Envy, I don’t even want you to finish that sentence because that’s not in my character and that’s ridiculous. Let’s stop with all the rumors that are giving people false hope that they’re relevant. I’m not about to come on my stage and bring death on my stage. My stage is about life and love, period. Nobody that was irrelevant was going to be made relevant on my stage. Absolutely not.”
On Peter Rosenberg’s remarks: “You should think about that before you attack the only woman on the bill. Something should have kicked in and said, ‘You know what, wow, this girl, I may not like one or two songs, but she is holding it down for every woman in hip-hop right now at this moment.’ If you don’t understand that, you’re freaking stupid.”
On being her own boss: “I don’t want an apology. I don’t care about an apology. The only thing I care about was handling my business last night because Flex is right, I do handle my own. I don’t ask anyone to speak for me and I typically go about things as a boss. Me having loyalty to Wayne and Cash Money and Young Money, that is a boss move. If you don’t have loyalty to your family, you will never understand what it is to be a boss.”
On the free concert she’s planning for her fans: “It’s still in the works, but it’s definitely gonna happen. This was actually Wayne’s suggestion. Wayne was like, ‘Yo, we can do our own show for the people. You don’t have to feel bad.'”
On her response to the critics: “Until you can respect me, I’m not even walking and sitting in that room. People were saying, well you should have still walked on that stage and showed them. I don’t have to show anyone shit.”