Y’all know the story because it’s one we’ve heard before when it comes to Nicki Minaj. I can’t be the only one who’s noticed that each chapter of her story seems to involve a beef, issue or situation with another female rapper. And this time, it’s Cardi’s turn. Today, has been dubbed #NickiDay. The rapper, who has taken a hiatus from social media, released two new singles, “Barbie Tings” and “Chung Li.” In anticipation of her return, she sat down with Zane Lowe for Apple Music to discuss a few things the people might have been wondering about since she left. Check out a few of the highlights concerning Cardi B. and Meek Mill below.
On Cardi
“Shout out to Cardi and all the female rappers that show me genuine love… It just warms my heart when the girls do that. It makes me feel so good. With Cardi B, she’s done exactly what she should have done. She’s just gone full steam ahead. And congratulations to her. The only thing with Cardi that really, really, really hurt my feelings was the first interview she did after “Motorsport” came out. I remember when I first came in the game, if a female of that stature had done a feature with me on it, I would only be singing their praises and saying thank you. The first interview she did after “Motorsport” came out, it just really hurt me because she looked so aggravated and angry. And the only thing she kept saying was, ‘Oh I didn’t hear that. I didn’t hear that verse.’
Her most recent interview, that’s when I just came back on Instagram and I felt good, I finally felt like she said something genuinely nice about me.
But with “Motorsport” I kind of felt ambushed. Quavo is my baby. I love Quavo. And at the time, I went on Twitter and explained how “Motorsport” came about. And people were saying that I was lying.
So I texted Quavo and I said, ‘Hey can you back me up on this because I don’t want people to think I’m lying. What do I have to lie about?’
And he texted me back saying, ‘I would back you up on Twitter if you were my girl. lol’ And that hurt.
So Quavo told me ‘I’m not going to go on Twitter and address that shit man. If I do an interview, then I’ll address it.’ It hurt my feelings to know that people would watch me be slaughtered and not one person will step in to say the truth. They’ll allow people to run with the lie because it’s entertaining to make Nicki seem like a bad guy.
They were working on their group album and he [Quavo] texted me and said, ‘Is it ok to put Cardi on it.’ And I still have the text in my phone where I said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ And that’s the only story I told. I said exactly how it came about. And when it was time to clear the air about that, no one did that. All of them allowed them to look like I lied. And even with the scheduling conflict, she’s using my hairdresser now and even he can attest to the fact there was a scheduling conflict. And it was because of him. He’s the one that couldn’t show up. And I texted him and said, ‘If I can’t show up the day she’s shooting, they’re going act like it’s because i’m doing it to be mean with the current Nicki hate train.’ He wasn’t able to come, he had something to do and that’s fine. So I had to shoot on another day. They all knew that, especially if you’re using my hairdresser now. He can attest to that. And you all did interviews and y’all jumped around that, just to paint Nicki as the bad person so you can play the victim.
That really, really hurt me because I fully supported her. And up until this recent interview she did, I had never seen her show me genuine love in an interview. And I can just imagine how many girls wish sniff they could have been on a song with Nicki Minaj. And I’m not saying that in a cocky way but like *sniffs* Yikes. I’m saying it like, ‘The first thing out of your mouth when someone asks you about a Nicki Minaj feature is, ‘She changed her verse…she…’ It’s because of the Nicki Minaj hate train that she felt the comfortability to address me in that manner.”
On Meek Mill. The beef with Drake and his imprisonment
“It was one of the hardest parts of my career, to date. Because at the time, I did love both of them. I couldn’t erase the love that I had for my team but I also couldn’t speak out. I couldn’t say much. And I felt so imprisoned in that moment.
And when we later spoke about it, Drake said, ‘I wasn’t worried about anything in that entire situation other than ‘What if Nicki takes a shot at me? Then what? What if Nicki spits bars at me.’ He said throughout the whole beef that was the only thing he was worried about. That would have been so hurtful, painful for both of us.
It was difficult to stay out of it. I was behind the scenes, wishing it never happened. Even prior to it happening, I tried to stop it from happening. I said [to Meek] ‘Don’t do that.’
But I think as artists we all look back on things that we shouldn’t have done. That was one of those things he shouldn’t have done. But he did it and it is what it is. One thing I do know is that both Meek and Drake have moved on from that, from the anger and all of that. We all have moved on.
I don’t want to talk about legal things but I will say that every now and then I think about… I won’t go there. I’ll save some of those things for my album and I’m shooting a documentary. But what I will say now is that sighs deeply The judge in question did everything I asked of her. So I can’t bad mouth her because I met her personally. And I know what she said to us and he knows that and I know that. But, of course, I wouldn’t wish jail on anybody. But I’ll get into detail on that in the documentary and possibly on the album. What made me shed tears the other day was seeing his mother cry. Because she, during the relationship, was always so sweet to me. Even at the end, when we kind of both knew that it was too rocky, too bad, she always showed me so much love so I still care about her. So I didn’t like seeing her cry.”