Drake Blushed When Admitting He Wrote Alicia Keys’ ‘Un-Thinkable’ About Nicki Minaj
Remember when Nicki Minaj rapped in “Barbie Tingz” about being part of Lil Wayne’s “perfectly designed crew?” She said, “’Cause we the big three, don’t need a big speech, we made the biggest impact, check the spreadsheet,” referring to herself, Lil Wayne, and Drake.
As part of Young Money, she connected with both rappers musically and personally, but rumors about a romance with Drake lingered for years. While they’ve flirted on stage, in videos, and during interviews, the two always denied that anything resembling a love affair ever occurred.
Those days are behind them, but there is one R&B song that Drake penned with Minaj as his muse.
Nicki Minaj spoke about Drake’s crush-centric songs
In the early days of Nicki Minaj’s superstardom, she did an interview with Complex to discuss her career, creative process, and her relationships with Drake and Lil Wayne. The topic of Drake’s verse in “Miss Me” came up, where he talked about wanting to marry Minaj.
When Complex asked about her reaction to those lines, Minaj dished on that and the revelation that Drake wrote Alicia Keys’ “Un-thinkable” with her in mind.
“He let me hear it for the first time when we did Jay’s show at Madison Square Garden, the day before Wayne had to go to jail—that night he let me hear it on the headphones,” she said.
“But you know what else he told me he wrote for me? The Alicia Keys song ‘I’m Ready.’ I happen to love the song. I never told anyone that, I hope he won’t get mad that I said that,” Minaj added.
She joked that Drake is a playboy and he probably ran the line on a lot of women. Minaj also downplayed any notions they were more than friends.
“That’s the thing about Young Money, we will say a lot of crazy sh*t in the press but we will get around each other and start cracking up laughing like brothers and sisters,” she said.
Drake admitted ‘Un-thinkable’ is about Nicki Minaj
“Un-thinkable (I’m Ready)” is a single on Alicia Keys’ 2009 album, The Element of Freedom. The song went double platinum and snagged the number 1 spot on Billboard’s R&B charts when it first dropped.
But more than that, the lyrics are about acting on mutual romantic feelings. Some have described the song as part confession.
Word got back to Drake that Minaj spilled what he told her about the Alicia Keys song, and in a sit-down with music journalist Carl Chery in 2013, he addressed whether it’s true.
Grinning and blushing, Drake fumbled a bit before saying, “Yeah, it is. I’m not gonna lie.” He explained the song was inspired by a conversation he and Minaj had.
“The concept came from a conversation that we’d had — or conversations we have. I wrote it based off two things. One, based off that and two, based off Alicia and Swizz and their situation,” said Drake.
When Alicia Keys spoke to Complex about the track in 2012, she said it was about letting go and taking chances — especially on what you love.
