Nicki Minaj Talks Toning It Down, Business & “Anaconda” in GQ

Nicki Minaj GQ November 2014
Nicki Minaj for GQ November 2014 photographed by Mark Seliger

Nicki Minaj for GQ November 2014 photographed by Mark Seliger [Click to Enlarge]

Soon to unleash her third studio album, The Pinkprint , Nicki Minaj appears in the November 2014 issue of GQ Magazine in a beautiful editorial lensed by Mark Seliger .

In her interview with Taffy Brodesser-Akner, the rapper and hip-hop mogul speaks on her next chapter, toning down her outrageousness and more.

She also revealed some thoughts on “Anaconda,” the hit single from The Pinkprint , which is set to debut on November 24th via Young Money, Cash Money and Republic Records. Check out some of what she had to say below.

On how her product placements come about:

“My management team has a division that has a guy that his main focus is to go out there and find new brands for me to do business with or to find brands that would like to be in our videos and contribute to our budget.

On toning down her looks and antics:

“I always thought that by the time I put out a third album, I would want to come back to natural hair and natural makeup,” she told me. “I thought, I will shock the world again and just be more toned down. I thought that would be more shocking than to keep on doing exactly what they had already seen.”

On the “Anaconda” single and its controversial music video:

“‘She’ is just talking about two guys that she dated in the past and what they’re good at and what they bought her and what they said to her. It’s just cheeky, like a funny story… I think the video is about what girls do. Girls love being with other girls, and when you go back to us being younger, we would have slumber parties and we’d be dancing with our friends… I don’t know what there is to really talk about. I’m being serious. I just see the video as being a normal video…

“I’m chopping up the banana. Did you realize that? At first I’m being sexual with the banana, and then it’s like, ‘Ha-ha, no…’ That was important for us to show in the kitchen scene, because it’s always about the female taking back the power, and if you want to be flirty and funny that’s fine, but always keeping the power and the control in everything.”

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