Nicki Minaj revealed she once approached Kanye West about a potential Yeezy collaboration. However, the partnership never came to be.
The Queen spitter recently opened up about the situation in her interview with Joe Budden. During the chat, Nicki recalled her successful partnership with Fendi, which was spurred by the release of her 2018 hit, “Chun-Li.”
“‘Chun-Li’ said ‘Fendi prints on’ and that changed everything,” she said to Budden. “Once ‘Chun-Li’ came out and I said ‘Fendi prints on,’ all the girls started posting and saying ‘Fendi prints on,’ so Fendi gave me a deal.”
As a result, her 2019 Fendi Prints On collection “flew off the shelves,” she said.
With the successful release, Nicki pivoted her sights to Kanye’s Yeezy brand and approached the Chicago rapper about potentially collaborating on a Yeezy women’s line.
“I told Kanye about that. I was like, ‘Hey look, I’m about to do something and I just wanted to make sure I spoke to you first,’ because you know I have so much respect for him,” she explained.
However, Kanye ultimately declined the offer because he thought a women’s Yeezy collaboration should be created with his then-wife Kim Kardashian instead.
“He was like, ‘Well, if I did something with you… I think my wife probably wouldn’t love that idea because I should be giving that to my wife instead, if I was doing a female version of the Yeezys or whatever, it probably should go to my wife,'” Nicki said.
Speaking to Budden, the mother-of-one said she understood where Kanye was coming from. However, she was surprised that he would reject a partnership with her after previously venting about being shut out of the fashion industry himself.
“Kanye was very vocal about the fashion industry not letting him in at one time. So, if a Black female rapper who you know has just shown herself to be sellable in that space… And then I come to you as a Black man that I look up to, I’m doing that because you inspired me because you said the fashion industry didn’t want to let us in even though we’re so influential,” she said.
“We have to be careful that when we put these things out there and when a door is open that we do figure out a way to have another Black face there in that space,” Nicki continued. “That’s why it takes us so long to get into so many things, even though we are the most influential people on the planet.”
Elsewhere in the chat, Nicki also gave Lil’ Kim her flowers. See a clip from her interview below.