Nicki Minaj Talks About Her Evolution, 'Beez in the Trap' Video
Nicki Minaj’s promotional onslaught continues. After taping “106 & Park” on Monday, the green-haired diva rose bright and early on her album release day to pay a visit to SiriusXM Radio’s “Sway in the Morning,” where she discussed her evolution, newfound confidence, “Beez in the Trap” video with 2 Chainz, M.I.A.’s Super Bowl stunt, and her controversial Grammy performance.
On her evolution: “I think I went from being a caricature in people’s eyes to someone with a lot of layers. You just gotta realize that I’m never gonna be one dimensional. Even my core fans at times thought I was one dimensional when I was doing the mixtapes. However, even on the mixtapes, I was singing and I was doing songs like ‘Can Anybody Hear Me.'” … When mainstream got a hold of Nicki Minaj, they turned her into a girl that wears wigs and has funny voices. So then we had to get past that. And then I had to reel it in and say, ‘Hey, actually I’m a businesswoman.'”
On her newfound confidence: “I am not nervous, I am not fearful. All of those emotions have left. The stuff that I felt from the first album, I no longer care.”
On 2 Chainz: “He’s an incredible person. He’s a hard worker and I love seeing hard-working people that’s like, by any means necessary. That makes me passionate because that’s how I was.”
On the video for “Beez in the Trap”: “That video is very sexy, a lot of big booty girls in that video. We actually had to do a clean and a dirty.”
On M.I.A.’s Super Bowl incident: “I don’t think M.I.A. should have done it. It’s possible that she didn’t even plan to do it. Sometimes when you are nervous, you do things that you normally don’t do. I feel that may have been a defense mechanism at that time out of nervousness. I was kind of disappointed because it was on Madonna’s set. We were her guests and so if it was something planned, I think it was corny. I wouldn’t have done it, but M.I.A. is still cool with me.”
On her polarizing Grammy performance: “It was my favorite performance that I’ve ever done in my life. When I watched it back, I was jumping for joy. I wish I could watch that performance over and over like a fan.”
Listen to the full interview below.