NICKI MINAJ x NYLON APRIL 2016 ISSUE

Nicki Minaj What’s Good? The Rap Queen talks Loving Meek Mill,Babies, New Projects plus more in the April 2016 issue of NYLON Magazine.

On New Music:

A primary reason she’s taking her time making her fourth album is because she needs space after The Pinkprint, which was written in the wake of a long-term relationship’s end. “I needed time to hear myself think again,” she says, “because where I left off with The Pinkprint was a little bit emotionally unstable. I wanted to take a moment to just live my life, enjoy my life, have fun, go out. I think that’s very important before you start writing again. It’s a spiritual experience for the people who are hearing the music, so I’m trying to be very careful of what mental space I’m in while I’m creating it. Now, I want my happiness to be reflected in the new stuff.”

On Meek Mill & Babies:

“I’m not engaged yet,” says Minaj, that diamond smile encompassing her whole face and popping her dimple. “He said that my third ring would be my engagement ring. But sometimes he calls me his fiancée, and I’m always trying to stop him, like, ‘Nope! I ain’t got that third ring yet!’ We’re just taking it one step at a time. And, you know, if that happens, if I get married, then I’ll have a child, and that’ll be fun, because I can’t wait to hold my baby. When he and I were just friends, he would always say, ‘You remind me of my mother, and I like that because you’re like a dude. You’re tough like a guy and you talk like a dude.’ So I always got the sense that me being tough and bossy was a turn-on for him. And it’s important for me to keep my voice. Being in a relationship shouldn’t mean that you lose your voice. Being in a relationship should mean that you’ve met a secure-enough man to allow you, in a sense, to remain a queen.”

New Movie Role:

In Barbershop: The Next Cut, Minaj plays the character of Draya, a sensual young party girl who does weaves in the neighborhood beauty shop that has merged with the barbershop to save on rent in a gentrifying Southside Chicago. Directed by Malcolm D. Lee, it’s the best in the Barbershop/Beauty Shop series, both characteristically funny and sensitive while also tackling the dire murder rate afflicting young men in the city. As Draya, she portrays the femme fatale archetype but also explodes such stereotypes by monologuing in defense of a nuanced feminism that rings welcome, true, and heartfelt. “I wanted there to be a little bit of depth to Draya,” says Minaj. “I didn’t want her just to be, you know, an Instagram thot; I wanted her to have some sort of purpose and meaning.”

On Her New Project:

Minaj is credited as an executive producer on her Freeform comedy, as well as on a few upcoming projects. “That’s what I’m most proud of right now,” she says. “I want people to know that I have a brain. I want people to know, when they see my name, that I’m fully part of it, I’m fully passionate about it, I’m working behind the scenes on it, and that people take my opinion seriously.”

Click HERE to read the full interview

NYLON’s April issue hits newsstands March 29.