For fans who have been waiting years for Kanye West and Nicki Minaj to drop their collaboration New Body, we hate to break it to you, but that ship may have sailed! It’s certainly not happening anytime soon, thanks to the Super Bass artist!
Let’s rewind real quick! Kanye, Nicki, and Ty Dolla $ign recorded the sexually explicit track for the 46-year-old rapper’s album Yandhi back in 2018. However, Ye ended up scrapping that album altogether — so the song remained in the vault. The following year, though, Kanye teased that he was reworking it with the other two artists for his gospel album Jesus Is King. However, there was a slight problem. Nicki and Kanye were having some creative differences!
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The 41-year-old rapper claimed she wrote “three different verses” for the tune but was no longer “seeing eye to eye” with the Yeezy designer. Probably speaks well of Nicki considering who Kanye does see eye-to-eye with lately… Oof. Instead of continuing to work on the project, Ye decided to throw out the song again! But the story doesn’t end there!
A demo of the track then leaked online that same year! And when Nicki’s verse went viral on TikTok in 2020, she begged Kanye to reconsider releasing it. Despite its popularity, Kanye never responded to her at the time and thus never released it. As she told Hot 106, New Body became “the biggest hit record that never came out.” Oof.
But flash forward to December 2023, the record producer appears to be trying to get it out to the public again! He expressed this week his desire to include the beloved track on his and Ty’s upcoming album, Vultures. Kanye took to X (Twitter) on Thursday to share a screenshot of a text message he sent to Nicki asking her to clear New Body for the album — putting her on blast publicly so everyone knew the ball was in her court. Ch-ch-check it out (below):
. @NICKIMINAJ pic.twitter.com/gn9jijEpVD
— ye (@kanyewest) December 15, 2023
Whoa!
Could the track officially see the light of day? The answer is… no! Nicki refuses to give Kanye permission to drop the collaboration! Shortly after the tweet, she took to Instagram Live to give her response to Ye, saying:
“Chile, that train has left the station. OK? No disrespect in any way. I just put out a brand new album. Why would I put out a song that has been out for three years? Come on, guys.”
She’s not backing down! And who can blame her?! Nicki begged for the song to be released years ago when it blew up online, and Kanye didn’t give her an answer. And now when he’s trying to make a comeback amid his antisemitism controversy, he is expecting her to agree to drop the song? What, so he can ride her coattails out of cancellation? Come on, Kanye. Be realistic here. Watch her response (below):
Nicki Minaj speaks on not clearing “New Body”:
“Now regarding Kanye, that train has left the station. No disrespect in any way, I just put out a brand new album. Why would I put out a song that’s been out for 3 years? Come on guys.” pic.twitter.com/EuQrjxX6rR
— yzyupdates (@yzyupdates) December 15, 2023
Now we have to wonder how Kanye will respond to Nicki’s refusal! Will he cut her verse and release it anyway? Or will the song just remain in the vault forever? Thoughts, Perezcious readers? Sound OFF in the comments…
[Image via Jimmy Kimmel Live/Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen/YouTube]
