After years of hitmaking and trendsetting, Nicki Minaj decided to take a well-earned break from her explosive career to spend time with her new husband and baby boy. Since her conspicuous absence from music, fans have continuously expressed their eagerness for new material. However, not everyone agrees that it is the right time for the Barbz to return to the rap game.
On a recent episode of The Joe Budden Podcast, Joe, Rory, and Mal debated about Nicki’s return to the scene after reviewing DJ Khaled’s newly dropped project, Khaled Khaled.
Confident that the world is ready for a Nicki Minaj comeback, Mal declared, “It’s time. It’s time for a Nicki album.” Joe Budden was clearly surprised by Mal’s opinion, replying, “Did you not just hear everything we said about Khaled dropping during COVID? You want Nicki to drop right now?”
Clarifying that his opinion doesn’t necessarily reflect poorly on Nicki, Joe added, “Nicki, I love you, I wish you and your family well, and that’s what I got.” It seems Budden thinks that dropping an album right now is a poor business decision, but Minaj fans are likely to disagree.
Many people in the hip hop world have been discussing Nicki Minaj’s place in music recently, particularly since critics and influencers have a hard time not pitting female rappers against each other. Since we are beginning to see increasingly more women rappers have just as much success as their male counterparts, fans and industry commentators are also more tempted to rank and categorize the ladies of rap instead of seeing them as the dynamic and multi-faceted forces that they are.
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However, rapper Russ recently took to Twitter to make a strong point about the timing of Nicki Minaj’s career, saying, “Imagine if TikTok was out during Nicki Minaj blowin up era…numbers woulda been astronomical lmao. Did it on em, only, anaconda, twerk it, FEELING MYSELF Man, soooo many like bruh lmao sh*t was already outta here but that woulda been insane lol.”
It’s true that Nicki has some of the most memorable and highly animated rap songs of the last couple decades, so it is easy to imagine the endless TikTok dances she would have inspired. But of course, it is never too late to make a Nicki Minaj track go viral on TikTok!
