Photo by Kevin Mazur. Via Getty Images.
Nicki Minaj has made “All these bitches is my sons” one of her signature phrases, referring to her rap rivals as nothing more than her children over 50 times in her lyrics—something Genius has chronicled before. But while she has plenty of metaphorical sons, Nicki’s attention—in her lyrics and sometimes in her interviews—has now turned to real-life babies. Nicki’s Queen marks the first time the tension between her empire and her dreams of real-life motherhood has made its way into her lyrics so prominently.
Back in 2014, during an interview with Complex, Nicki explained why motherhood is so important to her and how it fits into her plans for her music career:
If I’m done with my fifth album and I don’t have a child by then, no matter how much money I have, I would be disappointed, as a woman, because I feel like I was put here to be a mother.
Nicki’s next album will be her fifth, but on her fourth album it seems like Nicki has moved away from rapping about imaginary children and started thinking more about real ones. On Queen single “Chun-Li,” Nicki dropped this non-metaphorical reference to having children of her own:
Show off my diamonds like I’m signed by the Roc (by the rock)
Ain’t pushin' out his babies ‘til he buy the rock
Nicki mentions the topic more than once on her latest album. Something that got lost in the controversy “Barbie Dreams” generated is that the song opens with Nicki on a quest to make babies. After going up and down a roster of rappers, she doesn’t find a suitable father:
I’m lookin' for a nigga to give some babies
A handful of Weezy, sprinkle of Dave East
Nicki seems to want children, but there’s a clear resistance here. On “Barbie Dreams” her search for a baby daddy comes up empty and on “Chun-Li” she makes marriage a requirement. She wants to do it with the right person and only after there’s a ring on her finger. But on “Good Form” she may have found someone worthy of being the father to her children:
He know I don’t never cheat because I’m good to him
Might gotta have his baby, nurses yellin' push for him
Despite the handful of references on Queen, prior to 2014’s The Pinkprint Nicki had never rapped about having actual kids. The first time her preoccupation with having children ended up in her lyrics was on the Pinkprint cut “All Things Go:”
Cherish these nights, cherish these people
Life is a movie, but there’ll never be a sequel
And I’m good with that as long as I’m peaceful
As long as seven years from now I’m taking my daughter to preschool
Let’s do the math. Pinkprint came out in the tail end of 2014. Usually, children are three-years-old (sometimes two) when they start going to preschool. According to Nicki’s own timeline, that would put her first born’s birth date in 2019 at the latest, when the Queens rapper turns 37. The lines in Queen show a clear tension between the desire to have children soon and finding the right man in time for her self-imposed deadline.
It should be said that motherhood shouldn’t spell the end of any woman’s career. However, during the Lyrical Queen event at the Genius HQ a few weeks back, Nicki alluded to how a pregnancy might signal a deliberate stopping point for her rapping career:
I’m the chosen one. I’m not going nowhere until I want to go somewhere. So the best bet is for y’all to hope and pray that I wanna push some babies out my pussy because before I do that I will be right fucking here, winning.
If Nicki intends to keep on winning, then she likely plans on giving Cash Money six albums like she said on “Want Some More.” As she looks ahead to album number five, she has some personal life goals to accomplish that seem to compete with her drive to keep reigning as the Queen. It’s unclear if she’s ready to let go of either pursuit. In that same 2014 Complex interview she also said:
By the fifth album, I will have walked down the aisle and I will at least be on baby number one, possibly baby number two. [Laughs.] And have $500 million.
It remains to be seen what will happen for Nicki in the future, but Queen gives fans a glimpse of Nicki Minaj’s prenatal dilemma. She longs to fulfill her lifelong dream of being a mother. At the same time, she’s made it clear that motherhood is a priority for her and would lead to a significant change in her rap career. If her track record is any indication, she’ll let us know how things are turning out in her lyrics.
