To promote his upcoming debut album Montero, which drops tomorrow (Sept. 17), Lil Nas X stopped by “The Breakfast Club” for an interview on Thursday (Sept. 16). During the chat, the 22-year-old star revealed which artists he would have loved to collaborate with for the project but didn’t get the chance to.
“Nicki and Drake,” Lil Nas said around the interview’s nine-minute mark. “No reply from Nicki; Drake was still working [on Certified Lover Boy].”
Since Lil Nas is a well-known Barb, Charlamagne Tha God asked the rapper if he’s ever slandered Nicki Minaj, possibly leading her to ignore his collab request.
“I’ve never slandered Nicki,” Lil Nas replied. “There’s like a lot of things going around, but you know, I don’t respond to any of it so it’s like… ‘cause then it’s just gonna keep being brought back up.
“Drake replied… He was still working on Certified Lover Boy and whatnot and he was 100 percent focused on that,” he continued. “This was like a few weeks ago and I understood completely, and he said he’s down to do something but [it was] just not the right time. He was trying to get his own shit together.”
Although Montero will not feature the 6 God or Nicki, the project is still stacked with several guest contributors. Megan Thee Stallion, Doja Cat, Jack Harlow, Elton John and more are set to appear. Earlier this month, Lil Nas was criticized by a Twitter user for not featuring any Black men on the project. “Maybe a lot of them just don’t wanna work with me,” he responded at the time. Kid Cudi came to Lil Nas’ defense both online and in his TIME Magazine tribute article this week.
“When I saw the tweet about Nas’ album Montero not featuring Black male artists, and he replied that ‘maybe a lot of them just don’t wanna work with me,’ that made me sad,” Cudi wrote. “There’s a homophobic cloud over hip hop and he’s going to break that shit down. We have to stand with him. I’m going to do whatever I have to do to let him know—you have my support.”
Watch Lil Nas’ full “Breakfast Club” interview below.