Nicki Minaj Explains Why Drake Isn't On 'Queen'

Queen is the first Nicki Minaj album without a Drake feature.

She discussed the lack of Drizzy with DJ Whoo Kid.

“Drake and I were working on something,” she said. “But I didn’t want to change the date of the album. About two days before I had to turn it in, he and I had been going back and forth. Within 12 hours of having to turn in the album, we were going back and forth ’cause he had come to my studio we found something we really, really loved. But he was also going through that process of getting stuff right for his tour and I had to understand that. As an artist, I always try to put myself in the artists’ shoes and not try to be selfish.”

And anyway, she didn't even need Drake:

“My thing is like, ‘Yo, I don’t need anybody. I stand on my own two feet.’ I always keep on reminding myself, ‘Onika, when you was putting out your mixtapes you ain’t have no big name people to put on there' ... It was me grinding. If I have to do that again, so fucking be it. Nobody's going to make or break me. I'm going to do me."

She might be rethinking not waiting on Drake. Nicki had to add a Tekashi 6ix9ine feature to Queen after the album dropped to juice sales. Minaj has also spent the last few days raging at the charts (and a shadowy conspiracy against her) because Queen failed to finish number one in its first week.