Dear Gossips,
There were all kinds of posts online yesterday about Adele releasing a new song featuring Nicki Minaj, because that’s what Nicki said. I was about to say that we posted about it too since I actually wrote the article and sent it off to be uploaded but when I checked yesterday’s links I couldn't find it because… instead of emailing the document to Jacek, I emailed it to Emily, our site manager – but she’s on holiday. Was it divine intervention? There is no record of that post on LaineyGossip.com and, it turns out, there doesn’t need to be since…
Omg guys. 😅🤣 I thought everyone could clearly see I was being sarcastic. Shit! Now I have to go to Adele’s studio & steal some files. Who’s in the UK? I got a job for you 🥴 https://t.co/oyh4hECNCC
— Mrs. Petty (@NICKIMINAJ) October 16, 2019
Still, I can’t pretend to not have believed it because I did and had I not mistakenly by force of habit sent the post to Emily instead of Jacek, there’d be hard evidence of it. Looking back now, I should have known it was a waste of time because, well, Nicki also said she’d be retiring – and nobody actually buys that she’s retiring. I wonder, though, if she’s getting to the point where what she says should always be doubted.
That’s not to say she didn’t accomplish what she wanted to accomplish. She joked about that Adele collaboration at the launch of her Fendi capsule collection so all those headlines, and there were a lot of them, got her the attention she wanted. And knowing Adele, she probably thought it was hilarious. So… does it matter that Nicki might be encouraging a reputation for being an unreliable source?
When we were kids we were taught about the boy who cried wolf and the whole point of the story is to impress upon children the value of honesty and the consequences of dishonesty: if you keep lying about the wolves, one day you’ll tell the truth about the wolf and no one will show up.
If I’m a kid these days though? I’m like, whatever, grownups, everyone always shows up – we show up more often for the lies than the truth. And I’m not just talking about Nicki. The Sun several months ago reported that Charlize Theron and Brad Pitt were dating because they were seen at the Chateau Marmont. They were never dating. But people keep showing up for The Sun.
What, then, is the key to a good lie? A good lie always starts from reality. In Nicki’s case, it was Adele who was seen on social media rapping along expertly a few months ago to Nicki’s verse on “Monster” which got everyone online excited and hoping/praying for a collaboration one day. So the next time Nicki’s in front of a microphone, of course a reporter would ask about it. I’m a reporter and I totally would have asked too – and this gives Nicki the opportunity to tell a lie, or a “joke”, about them releasing a single together, because everything up to that point was authentic. The kicker seems like a logical conclusion. And that kicker makes it easy to forget that Adele, over three albums, has never featured anyone on any of her songs, which is one of the things that distinguishes her from her peers. Almost every solo artist has had a feature artist on one of their tracks or been a feature artist on someone else’s track. Will there be a feature artist on Adele 4? Or will she maintain this as a signature of her career?
Yours in gossip,
Lainey