Nicki Minaj was forced to dump her version of Tracy Chapman‘s hit song “Baby Can I Hold You” off her new album, Queen, after the alternative music legend denied her request to sample the song.
The 35-year-old rapper took to social media to inform her fans that Queen — originally scheduled to drop on August 10 — was delayed a week while she sought permission from Chapman to sample “Baby Can I Hold You” for her new song titled “Sorry”.
But Chapman, 54, refused to clear the sample for Nicki’s new song featuring her ex-lover Nas.
Permission was presumably denied because Chapman, a musical perfectionist, is not a fan of Nicki’s raps or her singing.
New York DJ Funkmaster Flex got ahold of the deleted album track and played it on his radio show over the weekend, prompting Nicki to post the now-deleted tweet “Sis said no”, suggesting Chapman didn’t like her rap track.
Queen is already a big hit among Nicki’s peers, with her mentor Lil Wayne praising Nicki’s work in a video released on Twitter. The “Lollipop” hitmaker, who is namechecked on the track “Barbie Dreams”, insisted Queen is an instant classic. But, like some of Nicki’s older fans, Weezy still yearns for the old Nicki.
Lil Wayne said:
“I’m not gonna go out there on a limb and say it’s her best album, because I can still listen to songs (from) when she was a teenager, and I still hear vocals and lyrics from there that are, to me, the best thing she’s ever said in her life. So, I’m specific like that, but to date, it’s one of the best albums yet – and I don’t mean out of her catalog. I mean period.”
Listen below to Nicki’s deleted track “Sorry” and Tracy singing “Baby Can I Hold You” live in concert.
Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images
