Nicki Minaj has explained what happened “New Body,” her much-hyped collaboration with Kanye West originally intended for his scrapped album Yandhi.
Ye famously teased the song, also featuring Ty Dolla Sign, back in 2019 and Nicki was clearly excited. When Yandhi was scrapped in favor of the gospel album Jesus Is King, the fate of “New Body” seemed uncertain. By late 2019, Nicki indicated that she and Ye weren’t “seeing eye to eye” about the track, which he wanted to transform into a gospel record. The following year, per the Source, Minaj even told fans to comment on Ye’s then-wife Kim Kardashian’s Instagram posts to let her know fans wanted the song.
In a new interview on Hot 106, Nicki gave an update on the status of the track and further explained why it never came out. “Let me tell you something about that…I respect everybody and where they are in life, where they are spiritually," she said when asked about the song at the 15:30 point of the interview above. "The public adored 'New Body.' Like, 'New Body' is the biggest hit record that never came out. So what I thought was interesting was that Kanye made me write my 'New Body' verse four times over in order to fit into where he was creatively and spiritually in his life, right, only to then go on the internet a few months later to see him on Drink Champs."
Minaj went on to imply that Kanye’s recent behavior, at least throughout late 2021 and early 2022, stands in direct contrast to his Jesus Is King days. “I missed it by a year, I guess,” she said. “Had ‘New Body’ been out when he was not in his gospel era, then it would’ve seen the light of day. But, it didn’t, so it wasn’t meant to be. Everybody knows that’s the hit that got away. … I think the ship has sailed for ‘New Body,’ everybody has come to love the original way they heard it.”
Even though Nicki seemed a bit disappointed about the song not coming out, she stressed there are no sour feelings. “It is what it is, sometimes stuff happens like that in our world,” she concluded.
Elsewhere in the interview, she revealed that she’s already “signed on the dotted line” to do more of her Queen Radio show, and an official announcement is due in the coming weeks. She also touched on maintaining a competitive attitude with her Young Money family members Drake and Lil Wayne.
“I think we are always competing,” she said at the 7:00 point of the chat. “I think Drake and Wayne and myself, I think we are very freaking competitive. I think that’s what makes it fun,” she said. “I remember one time when I was kind of losing my way a few years back…and Lil Wayne was like, ‘Yo, you need to be in the studio, you need to be around rappers!’” His advice was right, she added, because being around Drizzy and Weezy in the studio inspires her to remain competitive and “go super duper hard.”
Nicki also stopped by for an interview with Power 106 Los Angeles, during which she spoke about choosing to avoid more sexually explicit tracks at the moment. “Six different girls sent me a song in the last few months, and for whatever reason a couple of them were more sexual,” she said at the 6:30 point below, explaining she’s not “ready” to tackle that material so soon after giving birth to her first child. “I just didn’t do the record, but if I was to do it…I wouldn’t water down the bars on it.” She also said she’s at the point of her career she can do what she wants, with who she wants. “Nobody’s ever gonna pressure me again to work with someone I don’t want to,” she said.
Nicki Minaj gave her take on the rap Mt. Rushmore discussion, too, and said she deserves a spot because of her 2010s run alone. “It’s weird, because I guess everyone’s rap Mt. Rushmore is gonna be different based on what they like,” she said at the 12:00 point, before asserting that her influence means she deserves to have her name in the conversation. “It’s no denying, it’s not bragging, it’s not nothing, it is what it is.”
