Kanye West Once Felt It Was Necessary for Nicki Minaj to Outshine Him on ‘Monster’
Kanye West once teamed up with Nicki Minaj for the hit single “Monster.” The record was a song off of West’s critically acclaimed album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The song was very much known for Minaj’s feature, whose performance initially rubbed West the wrong way.
Nicki Minaj bruised Kanye West’s ego in ‘Monster’
“Monster” was a 2010 song by West featuring many hip hop juggernauts like Rick Ross and Jay-Z. Despite the song’s star-power, a rising Minaj managed to stand out from her more experienced contemporaries. So much so that some even felt she might’ve stolen the show. It was a feeling that West himself had after hearing Minaj’s verse. The rapper was so threatened by the verse at the time that he considered removing it from the song.
“It was like that moment when I thought about taking Nicki’s verse off of ‘Monster’ because I knew people would say that was the best verse on the best Hip Hop album of all time or arguably top ten albums of all time,” West once said according to Inquisitr. “And I would do all that work, eight months of work on Dark Fantasy and people to this day would say to me ‘My favorite thing was Nicki Minaj’s verse.’”
In an interview with The Tab (via ET), West delved into a little further into his feelings during that moment. He compared being overshadowed by Minaj to being exiled.
“One of the most memorable things about MBDTF was Nicki Minaj, and the fact that she kicked my ass, on my own song, on one of the best albums…the best album — I’m just saying what the critics said — of the last 25 years,” West said. “I was exiled from my country, it was a personal exile, but exile. To come back and deliver my magnum opus of a work, and to be outshined … to be beat by a girl, basically.”
At the same time, West believed it was instrumental to his growth.
“This was necessary,” he continued. “I think it was one of the most important points of working on that album, was to not stop her from her moment because of how good she is … She was able to go on and become a successful, and fly, and run, and dream, and provide. And it was not locked because of my career.”
Kanye West wanted to make a line on the ‘Monster’ record come true by sleeping with Nicki Minaj
A candid West told Big Boy TV that Minaj caught his attention for another reason other than her skill. He also found the artist attractive enough to consider making a pass at her. West would talk to Minaj’s boyfriend at the time, Safaree, about making his move on her. But he had no idea that Minaj and Safaree were an item.
“You know what’s so messed up is, we didn’t really know they was together, so we doing Dark Fantasy and he in the studio,” West said. “I’m just thinking she was a bad b****. I’m like, ‘Yo Safaree, you think Nicki would let me and Amber [Rose] hit like what she said?’ Like, we got to make these raps true.”
Nicki Minaj and Kanye West butted heads over what would’ve been another collaboration
Minaj and West planned to come together for a record not too long ago. The unreleased song “New Body” was supposed to be about body shaming in the industry. But West wanted to take the song in another direction, and turn it into a gospel record. Minaj didn’t agree with West’s new take on the song. And although the two were still on good terms, these creative differences stopped “New Body” from ever seeing the light of day.
“I done wrote three different verses chile, and I don’t know. We ain’t seeing eye to eye on it. I don’t know, but of course, I love and respect Kanye, and Kim, we’ll see what happens with that,” Minaj once wrote on according to Complex.
