Nicki Minaj has hinted that her new album will arrive before the year is out.
During a conversation with one of her “long-time idols” Jada Pinkett-Smith for Interview magazine published on Tuesday (October 18), the Young Money megastar indicated her long-awaited fifth LP would be released in 2022.
“I wasn’t sure how I was even feeling about having to put out an album this year, but that song happening and people liking it, that made me happy,” Nicki said, referring to her chart-topping, record-breaking single “Super Freaky Girl.”
She added: “People have gone through so much recently that they want to have fun. It’ll probably expedite the album to come out this year.”
Nicki Minaj’s new album has been in the works since at least 2019 when she confirmed to Elle that he was working on her next project, which she described as “fierce, fun and unapologetic.”
Earlier this year, Nicki divulged more details when she promised the return of “Mixtape Nicki” on the upcoming project.
“I just feel like that’s what’s needed right now,” she told The Dana Cortez Show in February. “What I do is write raps that connect with people, that makes people want to sing along and channel their inner bad bitch.
“I love giving that good energy to people and make them feel like, ‘Yo, I’m speaking for you.’ You gonna get hints of other things, of course, but yes, you’re going to get that Mixtape Nicki.”
During a Q&A with fans on Twitter the following month, the Queens, New York native hinted at Drake playing a major role in the album by revealing they’d discussed him executive producing it.
While further details remain scarce, Nicki Minaj has treated fans to multiple previews of her new album with the singles “Do We Have a Problem?” and “Bussin,” both of which feature Lil Baby, as well as the Fivio Foreign-assisted “We Go Up” and the aforementioned “Super Freaky Girl.”
The as-yet-untitled project will serve as Nicki Minaj’s first studio album in four years and the follow-up to 2018’s Queen, which itself came after a long wait following 2014’s The Pinkprint.
In August, she released Queen Radio: Volume 1, an epic, career-spanning compilation featuring 29 of her biggest songs, including “Super Bass,” “Moment 4 Life” and “Anaconda,” among others.
If her next album does indeed drop in 2022, it will bolster an already busy fourth quarter, with Nas and Hit-Boy’s King’s Disease 3, Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre’s Missionary, Metro Boomin’s Heroes & Villains and potentially five more mixtapes from NBA YoungBoy also on the horizon.
