While a slew of rap aficionados struggle with the task of picking Kanye West’s best album, his 2010 effort, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, always finds its way into the conversation. One of the reasons why it’s considered his magnum opus is because of his star-studded track “Monster,” which featured JAY-Z, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross and Bon Iver. On Tuesday (Oct. 24), Minaj spoke on the track’s seven-year anniversary on Instagram and explained how it almost didn’t make the cut.
“Kanye called me to tell me Jay put a verse on this song & that he was still deciding if he would put it on his album. Haha,” Minaj began on her lengthy IG post. “It was like an hour long call where I tried to convince him to let the song stay on his album. He felt this verse would end up being the talk of the album. I said: YOU’RE KANYE WEST!!!!”
West was right, as Minaj’s lyrical dexterity wowed listeners, including JAY Z. “I became the first female rapper to perform @ Yankee Stadium on the JAY/Eminem stadium tour. When I saw him, Jay said: “when u got so nice”? I said: “I been nice”! Ha! Kanye, thank you for being the genius you are. You always put others first. I fought u every step of the way but it worked out,” she wrote.
Minaj continued to praise West for pushing her to keep her “growling monster voice,” which accentuated her punchy verse. “He wanted me to add more of that growling monster voice and I felt it was over kill.) He wouldn’t give in. In the end, maybe he was right,” she said.
Jam out to “Monster” and check out Minaj’s post below.
