Nicki Minaj Explains How Beyonce's 'Flawless' Remix Came to Be (Audio)

[Transcendence]

 

 

Nicki Minaj owned this past weekend. Before releasing her second single, "Anaconda," on Sunday, Aug. 3, she surprised when appearing on the remix to Beyonce's "Flawless."

Late Saturday, Beyonce dropped a remix to theBeyonce song without notice. While some outlets (HipHopWired, Miss Info) sensed a collaboration between the two superstars was coming, it was mostly kept under wraps until the week of.

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Minaj called into Hot 97 on Monday morning to share how the remix came to be: "A month or two ago, Gee[Roberson] called me when I was on my way to Vegas and said, 'Beyonce wants you to remix to 'Flawless.' After I got proper medical help and started breathing again, I was like, 'What?' "

"She sent me a version that she wanted. She told me, 'I want you to be you. I don't want you to hold back.' I said, 'You sure?' She said, 'Yeah. I want you to be you and do you.' I was actually in New York writing the verse. I recorded the verse in New York, and she stopped by the studio. She was such a sweetheart. She was hyping me up, 'Do your thing. Don't hold back. Go in.' I was like, 'OK. All right,' " she continued.

Since they met up at the NYC studio, Minaj has been sending Bey photos of herself for the single artwork. The single cover features a collage of selfies of both, individually. "We've just been waiting for her to drop it. She said she was going to drop it in the middle of the [On the Run] tour. I wrote the verse before she even went on tour. We've been going back and forth. I've been sending her photos of myself. We've been going back and forth about the mixes and the single art."

Minaj revealed that while she has remixed Beyonce's material in the past, such as her remix of "Sweet Dreams" featuring Lil Wayne, she almost thought a collaboration between the two wouldn't happen. "When I was putting out mixtapes and stuff, I would always remix her stuff. I have a dope remix that my fans have always been in love with, to one of her songs, 'Sweet Dreams,' [that] me and Wayne did. I figured that eventually we would do something together. I mean, I'm not gonna lie. Recently I thought it would never happen 'cause I felt like if she was going to ask me, she would have asked."

"I think the stars aligned the right way," she continued. "We are just in the right places in our careers that it makes sense now. With the release to her last album, her records are geared to what I do now."