Nicki Minaj Pushes Back Queen Album Release

Matt Winkelmeyer/MG18/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

Nicki Minaj Pushes Back Queen Album Release

Matt Winkelmeyer/MG18/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

After telling fans that she ran into some last-minute sampling clearance issues, Nicki Minaj has decided to push back her highly anticipated album once again. Queen is now slated to release on 8/17.

Minaj officially delivered the breaking news with a note to fans coinciding with her Apple Music Essentials playlist takeover:

My darlings!!! I have a huge surprise that I can’t share until the day before #Queen drops. So in the meantime, check out this playlist I made for you guys. I did #FEFE with my new BFF from BROOKLYN. He’s a little funny looking but he’s really sweet under all those tats. — New York til da DEF!!!! Ha! Last time I teamed up with YG was for his remix to “My Hitta.” We recently performed #BigBank at the BET Awards and had a blast wit my dudes Big Sean and 2 Chainz. I have classic bops with all 3 of them so I’m including them on this list. I’m super excited about my recent collaboration with Ariana Grande. She’s one of the realest artists I’ve had the pleasure of working with. She couldn’t fly with me to Turks to shoot the #BedVideo so we shot her scenes in Malibu. We’re actually working on edit number 2 for the #BedVideo to include all the fun stuff we had to remove. I love “Ball For Me” with Post Malone. Not sure why he won’t release the video. — It’s DOPE!!! — I hope you enjoy my playlist. Can’t wait for you guys to hear my 4th album QUEEN ON AUGUST 17!!!!!!!

The “FEFE” rapper pondered the idea of delaying her album again on Twitter Tuesday night (7/31), but wanted to include input from her diehard Barbz fanbase. “So there’s a record on Queen that features 1 of the greatest of all-time. Had no clue it samples the legendary Tracy Chapman – do I keep my date and lose the record? Or do I lose the record and keep my date? Do we push #Queen back 1 week? Ugh, I’m torn y’all help,” she wrote. Onika’s fourth LP was originally supposed to drop on 6/15, and was delayed for the first time to 8/10.

Minaj later posted a poll to Twitter with both options. As of press time, pushing back the album holds the slightest of edges with a 51% majority on the split poll, but the 35-year-old ultimately decided to delay Queen an additional week until 8/17, where she will go head-to-head against her “Bed” collaborator and close friend Ariana Grande, who will be releasing her Sweetener album the same day.

‍♀️ ummmm no tf u bish whet is u d- breathe onika, breathe.

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This article originally appeared on Billboard.

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