Kanye West Turned Down Nicki Minaj For a Yeezy Partnership Because of Kim Kardashian

Rappers Kanye West and Nicki Minaj have been making hit songs for over a decade, and both have expanded their empires beyond the world of music. But even after both West and Minaj had created their own clothing lines, West couldn’t collaborate with Minaj on Yeezy partnership — largely because of his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian.

Kanye West and Nicki Minaj have worked together for over a decade

In 2010, Nicki Minaj was an up-and-coming rapper with three mixtapes out and a co-sign from rapper and record executive Lil Wayne. But it was Minaj’s verse on West’s song “Monster” that transformed her into a superstar. The song was released as a single from West’s album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, released the same day in November 2010 as Minaj’s debut album Pink Friday.

At the same time, West and Minaj collaborated on another song, “Blazin'”, which appeared on Pink Friday‘s tracklist. She also recited the spoken intro of West’s song “Dark Fantasy,” the opening track from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

The next time they would collaborate would be nearly a decade later in 2018. Minaj had an uncredited appearance on West’s song “Violent Crimes” from his ye album, and they both appeared on the 6ix9ine song “Mama.” And in 2019, an unreleased collab called “New Body” surfaced online.

Kanye didn’t want to do a Yeezy partnership with Nicki Minaj because of Kim Kardashian

Minaj and West have had a good working relationship for the past decade when it comes to music, but as for other ventures such as fashion, West wasn’t as keen.

Minaj opened up about her ill-fated Yeezy collaboration in a 2022 interview with Joe Budden. “He was like, ‘Well, if I did something with you, I think my wife [Kim Kardashian] 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,'” Minaj recalled. She didn’t think twice about it and kept it moving.

“Kanye was very vocal about the fashion industry not letting him in at one time, so if a Black female who you know has just shown herself to be sellable in that space,” she said, adding, “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.”

Minaj noted that she didn’t know for sure if Kardashian took issue with the idea of West and Minaj working together.

Kim and Kanye divorced in 2022

West’s alleged fear of Kardashian’s reaction has become a moot point in 2022. Kardashian filed for divorce in early 2021, and their split was finalized in March 2022.

Since Kardashian filed for divorce, West has been on a creative spree. He’s released two smash albums, Donda and Donda 2, as well as an in-depth Netflix docuseries, jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy.