After making and then qualifying a retirement announcement, Nicki Minaj has appeared on Colombian musician Karol G’s brand-new song, ‘Tusa’.
The ‘Queen’ rapper spits a guest verse – which begins with lyrics in Spanish – on the reggaeton artist’s new single. ‘Tusa’ also received a plush, pink-hued music video. Watch it below.
As Karol G – real name Carolina Giraldo Navarro – told Billboard, she started corresponding with Minaj on Instagram in the summer, trading songs until they collaborated proper on ‘Tusa’.
“She called me and said: ‘I’m going to make the best rap of my life for your song,’” Navarro said. “I felt so happy. I sent her the music at 1 p.m. At 1:07 p.m., she downloaded the file, and at 8 p.m., I had the song back.”
As for Minaj’s bilingual bars, Navarro said, “She surprised me by recording four full lines in Spanish.” Navarro recalled that on the day of the video shoot, Minaj asked her how to sing the ‘Tusa’ chorus in Spanish, and successfully sang it in the video.
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In September, Minaj made headlines when she declared on Twitter that she was going to “retire and have my family”. After her fans responded with shock and sadness, the rapper apologised for alarming her fans: “The tweet was abrupt & insensitive, I apologize babe.”
Before the shock announcement, Minaj had been working on a new album, which she described in an interview as “fierce, fun and unapologetic”.
Minaj later clarified her announcement, saying talk of “retirement” referred to the question of whether she would release her fifth album, as XXL Magazine reports.
“When I posted that retirement tweet, I knew that I had music that was already recorded that was still going to come out,” Minaj said. “So, the retirement was kind of talking about my album like meaning like, do I want to go back and record my fifth album? That’s what I was talking about, but I knew that of course features—I always get asked to do features and I like features. So it was really about my fifth album.”
‘Tusa’ is the latest Minaj feature to be released since she floated the possibility of retirement. She also appeared on ‘Fendi’, PnB Rock’s song with Murda Beatz, and ‘Bad To You’, a collaboration with Ariana Grande and Normani for the Charlie’s Angels soundtrack.