Nicki Minaj earned some of the biggest hits of her career with “Anaconda” and “Starships,” but it seems she’s no longer a fan of either track. In a Q&A panel appearance with Pollstar Live, the Queens rapper revealed that she wishes she never recorded “Anaconda,” no longer likes “Starships,” and was never a fan of her first Billboard Hot 100 hit, “Your Love.”
“So much of my discography,” she said when asked about which of her songs she regrets. “I wish I never recorded ‘Anaconda.’ I like the video but ugh. My first ever solo song on Billboard was ‘Your Love.’ To this day I like the video but I hate the song. I could go on and on. I hate ‘Starships,’ I mean ew, ‘Starships?’ I’m like, ‘Why did I do that?’ I really think that every time I hear it.”
Nicki’s disdain for “Your Love” has been well known for years. Back in 2010, Nicki revealed that she didn’t plan to release the song at all, but ended up doing so after it leaked and got picked up on radio.
“I was not planning on putting the song out at all. But then I heard it one day, somebody told me it was online. And I was like, ‘No way, no way in the world that song is out,’” she told MTV. “I went and listened to it and was really upset. It wasn’t mixed, it wasn’t finished, it wasn’t anything—I wasn’t gonna use it at all. But then radio started playing it.”
Although she didn’t like the track, it became her first charting hit on the Billboard Hot 100 as a lead artist, and was also her first song to go Platinum in 2011.
The news about “Starships” and “Anaconda” is more surprising. The two tracks remain some of the biggest hits of her career, standing at 6x Platinum and 2x Platinum respectively. “Starships” leaned heavily into the EDM sound popular across pop music at the time, a formula she would replicate on subsequent Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded hits like “Pound the Alarm” and “Va Va Voom.” “Anaconda,” meanwhile, was built around a prominent sample of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back,” a move that some saw as gimmicky.
“Starships” also played a central role in Nicki’s feud with New York radio station Hot 97. The same day Nicki was set to headline Summer Jam, host Peter Rosenberg disparaged the track on stage at the event, causing Nicki to pull out of her appearance.
It’s not uncommon for rappers to dislike their hits, especially years after the fact. Kodak Black distanced himself from his breakout hit, “No Flockin',” in 2018, and the late Juice WRLD revealed last year that he hated performing his No. 1 single, “Lucid Dreams.” Bands like Paramore and Foster the People have even stopped performing some of their signature songs live.
Catch up on all the lyrics to Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda,” “Starships,” and “Your Love” on Genius now.
