Nicki Minaj rejects Kanye West collaboration plea as new album delayed further

Minaj commented: ‘Regarding Kanye: that train has left the station, OK?’

Nicki Minaj has turned down Kanye West’s public plea to include her “New Body” verse on his new album, Vultures, which was expected to release on Friday (15 December).

The rapper’s fans were left hanging after West’s musical comeback was delayed, when the new album did not release as planned on Friday.

It appears that Minaj’s refusal to “clear” her song “New Body” for Vultures might have pushed back its release.

On Thursday (14 December), West, now known as “Ye”, tweeted a screenshot of a text message to Minaj reading: “Hi it’s ye, May I call you about clearing new body on the new album”.

Minaj, 41, responded in an Instagram livestream, saying: “Regarding Kanye: that train has left the station, OK? No disrespect in any way. I just put out a brand new album. Why would I put out a song that has been out for three years? Come on, guys.”

She released her new album Pink Friday 2 on 8 December. In a three-star review, The Independent’s Nadine Smith wrote that “the album sounds like a queen resting on her laurels rather than proving why she still deserves the crown”.

“New Body”, a song about plastic surgery, was first recorded in 2018 for West’s scrapped album, Yandhi.

The 46-year-old played a different version of the song, without Minaj’s verse, at a recent listening party for Vultures, his collaborative album with rapper Ty Dolla $ign.

Meanwhile, Vultures has still not been released, leaving West’s fans outraged by the delay.

The album would mark his return to music after a string of controversies over the past year including his anti-Semitic outbursts.

West has a history of announcing new albums and then failing to release them on time. The “Stronger” singer announced two albums in 2020 – God’s Country and Donda: With Child – that are still awaiting release.

Nearly every album he’s released has been delayed, with 2021’s Donda pushed back a month, while Jesus is King was released more than a year after West’s announcement.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, the record West is perhaps best known for, was originally set for release on 14 September 2010, before it was moved to 12 October – then 22 November.

At the time of writing, the hashtag #Kanye was trending on Twitter, with hundreds of thousands of posts about the delayed album launch and the technical glitches that interrupted the livestream of a second Vultures listening party being held in Las Vegas late Thursday night (14 December.)

Several fans remarked it sounded as though West was “making a beat on his iPhone keyboard” after the music went off, before the stream briefly went dark amid rumours the police had shut down the listening party over permit issues.