Nicki Minaj

Nicki Minaj is gearing up to release her fifth album at some point this year. While her fas will have to wait for a title and a release date, they’ll be able to listen to the album’s first single, “Do We Have A Problem?” with Lil Baby, on February 4. It remains to be seen what other collaborations will appear on it, but one possibility is City Girls, now that the rap stars seem to have resolved their differences.

In a tweet on Wednesday, Nicki Minaj wrote, “Just had a great convo with @ThegirlJT & @YungMiami305. Let’s move on & make new memories y’all [unicorn emoji].” The hope is that the “new memories” will be new music between Nicki and City Girls, who have yet to ever collaborate. Nicki’s comments come shortly after she initially shut down the idea of working with the rap duo. “It’s let go,” she said during an interview on The Morning Hustle, “But why would I work with someone who doesn’t like me?”

On top of this, there’s also the chance that Nicki and City Girls’ first song together could appear on the latter’s upcoming fourth album. That project, which may feature the duo’s viral 2021 track, “Twerkulator,” would be the City Girls’ first full-length release since their 2020 effort, City On Lock.

Nicki Minaj has come a long way since I wrote about her need to collaborate with the generation of young female rappers she helped inspire. Although she had her issues with the then-emerging Cardi B and recently complained that younger female rappers “can’t take criticism,” spurring some fans to remind her to check her mirror once in a while, she did collaborate with rising star Doja Cat on the latter’s hit single “Say So,” leading to Nicki’s first-ever No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

However, Nicki still has high expectations from the younger generation and drew a line in the sand on potentially collaborating with one up-and-coming group specifically in a recent interview. Appearing on The Morning Hustle, a syndicated, urban news-and-talk radio show this week, Nicki shot down the possibility of any future collaborations with Miami scam rap duo City Girls. Using the example of a dinner invite, she says that after some shady comments by City Girls, she wouldn’t sit down to dinner with someone who didn’t like her. “It’s let go,” she asserted, “But why would I work with someone who doesn’t like me?”

A few fans confused by Nicki’s assertion wondered about what City Girls could have said to give her that impression, but screenshots are forever, and judging from the saved tweets that appeared in the replies on the above video, it doesn’t look like JT minced words one bit. “I just don’t like Nicki,” she tweeted back in 2017. “She feel she really run sh*t. Hoe, please, I want Cardi to take completely over. Push that bitch to the back.” For what it’s worth, that’s more or less what happened; since that tweet, Cardi did go on to become the first female rapper with multiple No. 1 records to her name. While Nicki has sort of caught up, these days, she makes more headlines for her scandals than her music. Hopefully, that changes Friday with the release of her new single featuring Lil Baby. And hey, there’s always the potential for her to do that Verzuz battle and remind people of her legacy.