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Nicki Minaj Opens Up About Her Fourth Studio Album!

Nicki Minaj Opens Up About Her Fourth Studio Album!

Nicki Minaj is on the cover of T‘s 2017 Greats issue, out on newsstands on Sunday (October 22).

Here’s what the 34-year-old rapper had to say:

On her forthcoming fourth studio album: “Sonically, I know what the album’s about to sound like. I know what this album is gonna mean to my fans. This album is everything in my life coming full circle and me being truly, genuinely happy. It feels almost like a celebration. The last album, The Pink Print, was almost like my diary, closing the chapter on certain things and not knowing if I was happy or sad about beginning new chapters. I was really writing about feeling unsure. Now, I can tell you guys what happened for the last two years of my life. I know who I am. I am getting Nicki Minaj figured out with this album and I’m loving her.”

On self-doubt: “Sometimes I wake up and say, ‘I don’t know if I can do this anymore,’ you know? I’ve had those times. I’ve had those years where I’m just like, ‘Am I good enough?’”

On overcoming double standards as a female rapper: “I had so much going against me in the beginning: being black, being a woman, being a female rapper. No matter how many times I get on a track with everyone’s favorite M.C. and hold my own, the culture never seems to want to give me my props as an M.C., as a lyricist, as a writer. I got to prove myself a hundred times, whereas the guys that came in around the same time as I did, they were given the titles so much quicker without anybody second-guessing.”

For more from Nicki, visit NYTimes.com.

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Credit: Patrick Demarchelier; Photos: T Magazine
Posted to: Nicki Minaj