Nicki Minaj delays new album until her birthday

Nicki Minaj‘s eagerly awaited new album ‘Pink Friday 2’ has been delayed for a second time.

• READ MORE: Nicki Minaj: every album ranked and rated

Earlier this week (October 25), the rapper took to Instagram to announce to her fans that the album is being pushed back by a couple of weeks, from its intended launch date of November 17 until December 8, to coincide with her 41st birthday.

However, the album’s slight delay isn’t just to fit into her birthday window, as the rapper explained on Instagram that Lil Wayne – her friend and a mentor figure in her career – and 2 Chainz will be releasing their joint album on November 17, and that she wanted to avoid a clash as “Weezy (Lil Wayne) would never do that if it was my album date”.

See her post below.

Elsewhere in the video, Nicki Minaj said that ‘Pink Friday 2’ is shaping up to be her “greatest gift to humanity” so far, and that it’s her most favourite project she’s ever worked on.

‘Pink Friday 2’ was originally set for release on October 20, but was later delayed to November 17. No reason was shared for the initial postponement. However, Minaj dropped the surprise standalone song ‘Bahm Bahm’ earlier this month as a treat for her fans.

Minaj later clarified that the new track isn’t going to appear on the tracklist of her forthcoming album ‘Pink Friday 2’ but resisted the idea that it was a single. Instead, she described it as “A limited time FREE website release as a gift to my core fans & everyone who cared enough to participate. I appreciate you guys helping me to make this an ICONic & VERY memorable #PinkFridayThe13th. But no. Not a single. Will never EVER be a single,” she wrote in another post.

Nicki Minaj’s 2018 album ‘Queen’ scored a four-star review from Cark Anka, who wrote for NME: “‘Queen’ *almost* works as a two-way effort from Nicki Minaj, one part reclamation of her position at hip-hop’s top table and one part raising the bar for any pretenders looking to take a seat. Unfortunately, in trying to take on all comers at once, there are parts of ‘Queen’ that few like an overreach.”