This morning Nicki Minaj announced that she’s expecting, revealing her baby bump in a set of maternity photos posted to Instagram. With a curly yellow bob in one snap, a blue wig in another, and lots of tacky frills, the photoshoot is reminiscent of the Minaj we knew in the early 2000s. Pay close attention to the pink and blue pacifiers prominently placed, well, where else.
“Love. Marriage. Baby carriage. Overflowing with excitement & gratitude. Thank you all for the well wishes.”
The reveal is flooded with congratulatory messages from the likes of collaborators like Sam Smith to A-listers like Halle Berry. Winnie Harlow writes, “Knew it knew it knew it. SO HAPPY FOR YOU! Love you!!”
I mean, we all knew it was happening soon. This rumour has been floating around for at least a year, but it was Nicki herself who fuelled speculation with her last music video appearance — her TROLLZ collaboration with rainbow-haired rapper, 6ix9ine. In the video Nicki is shows a lot of body, but what’s also eye-catching is every time her stomach was shown it appears as a digitally altered, blurry mess. It was such an amateur re-touching job I thought she was purposely making it look like she was concealing a pregnancy, to troll us, keeping on theme with the song. After the video was released, when a fan asked her for baby bump pics, she responded: “The world ain’t ready yet.”
It appears now, we’re ready. It’s the first child for Nicki and husband Kenneth Petty, who she wed late last year. He’s not well liked by her fan base, including me, as he’s been convicted of manslaughter and is a registered sex offender. His actions since being introduced as Nicki’s love interest have also been questioned, though they pale in comparison to his past. Earlier this year she apologized after he pushed a singer who he felt got too close to Nicki during a carnival performance.
Kenneth aside, it’s nice to see Nicki is the headlines for a positive reason. The announcement comes after Kanye West allegedly decided to strip her verse from his song “New Body,” on his upcoming album DONDA, in a tweet-and-delete announcement this weekend. After a version of the track leaked online last summer, the song has risen in popularity with Minaj’s verse becoming a go to clip on TikTok. It was originally supposed to be included on Ye’s last album, Yandhi, but was scrapped after he pivoted to gospel themes. The news Nicki wouldn’t be included on the final version is a slap in the face to the woman who is the reason you’re finally releasing the song. Nicki immediately became a trending topic on Twitter, and comedian Jaboukie Young-White hilariously captured the sentiment of many.
I’m not sure what’s happened to the relationship between Kanye and Nicki, but I’m not sure what’s happened to Kanye in general. Last month Nicki replied to fans campaigning for her to purchase the song from West and release it herself, telling them to take their grievances up with Kim Kardashian. No one’s sure if Kim has Kanye’s ear anymore either, and that’s a whole other (very sad) issue. This post, however, is all about Nicki and the baby. (Lainey: name predictions? Is Barbie too obvious?)
