Nicki Minaj once revealed that signing with Lil Wayne’s Young Money imprint was more about loyalty than money. However, that doesn’t mean she was quick to jump into just any deal.
Before The Success
In fact, she also revealed that she was skeptical as to whether or not the whole thing was even real prior to her signing a deal.
“I never knew if this was real or not. He could wake up one day and say, ‘Nah, I changed my mind,'” said Nicki during a previous interview with Hot 97.
She even admitted that she was kicked out of Young Money by the Louisiana hitmaker for a short period of time after having to leave the studio session to make a show that she had previously booked.
For Nicki, it has always been about carrying her own weight and not relying on anyone else to help make her dreams come true.
Holding Her Own Weight
“I never relied on Lil Wayne. I’ve always wanted to bring something to the table,” she said. “I wanted to have my own buzz. That’s why I started building the whole Twitter, social media on my own so that he would eventually hear like, ‘Oh, this chick gotta buzz.'”
Nicki’s plan worked because shortly after that she was officially approached by Lil Wayne to join his label, which she says was not even a question. Her loyalty would always lie with him due to all that he did to help her get into the music business.
“He had allowed us to come on the road with him, without no contract signed or nothing,” said the “Moment For Life” emcee. “We were performing in front of 20,000 people a night so there was no way I was going to say no.”
Nicki added: “It wasn’t about the money, it was just about the loyalty.”
Her No. 1 Rule: No Bad Deals
From there, she ensured that she had a good lawyer in tow because she was adamant about not signing a bad deal — no matter how loyal she wanted to be.
“I had a great lawyer from the beginning,” Nicki revealed. “One thing I made sure I didn’t do was sign a 360 deal.”