"Press Conference" lyrics - NICKI MINAJ

(Charlamagne)
Let's talk about New York City.
I actually get in arguments because people say Nicki doesn't rep New York.
I say "What do you mean? She shouts it out all of the time."

(Nicki Minaj)
Y'all don't want me to rep y'all.
Y'all don't hear when I rep y'all 'cause y'all be dick-riding everybody else.

Do you feel you get the proper love from New York?
Hell fucking no.
I never understood that because you ran the same circuits of all these other rappers.
You came up on mixtapes like everyone else...

I was selling my mixtape out of my muthafucking BMW out on Jamaica muthafuckin' Avenue to Amadue and Hussaine and all them.
Fuck you niggas!
You niggas don't know the half of what I've been through!

(Charlemagne)
What do you say to people that say you're trying to be something that you're not like Lady Gaga or Madonna and you're doing things for shock value?

Well, I don't know.
In a minute, if I fucking sit down and piss, they're going to tell me I can't do that 'cause another bitch did it.

(SB)
Stupid ass bitches!
People compare her to everybody.
Nicki gets it so hard!

(Charlamagne)
I think when they don't understand something they have to compare it to something to make themselves feel comfortable.

(Nicki Minaj)
Absolutely, I always say that.
For their minds to interpret it, they have to draw a comparison and I always say, even though it's very common, it's just a more simple-minded approach as opposed to looking at every situation as if it's the first time.
It is what it is but even she gets compared to Madonna and it's a never-ending cycle but I rather you compare me to someone that is winning and that's won then compare me to...

(Charlamagne)
Someone that is washed.

(Nicki Minaj)
It's easy for a loser to be jealous of a winner.

(Charlemagne)
Do you ever look back at some of your costumes and your wigs and say, "I did look like a damn fool"?

(Nicki Minaj)
Yes, I do!

You know what I like about superstars?
I like my superstars to be out there.
Be like Prince with your ass out.
I may see it and say, "Damn, she looks like a fool," but you're a superstar.

That's how I want to see my superstars.
I don't want to see my superstars regular.
I keep saying this: I went to school for theater.
I took four years of my life and devoted it to theater.

I did that because my passion was acting.
When I started rapping, I felt like I couldn't really be myself.
When I started winning, I started feeling that I can be myself.
I can do my accents, I can do my voices, I can do my faces, I can do costumes.

I can now bring me to who, you know, people see as Nicki Minaj.
I can now really bring me into it.
And I think that's where the confusion lies is that people thought that when I first came out, that that was me in my entirety.
But that wasn't. That was a small facet of who I was.

But, who you see now is a more multi-faceted mixture of all the different personalities that I have in me.
I mean... and I think that if I was to not show that, then I wouldn't be doing justice to all the people who feel like I do.
'Cause for every person who doesn't understand it is, there is a person who feels like me, who feels like... sometimes I just break out in an English accent, you know, like, what's wrong with that?

(Charlemagne)
Do you think that pop Nicki and mixtape Nicki can exist in the same space?

(Nicki Minaj)
They already are and they are both winning.

If it's one thing that I would love for little girls to embrace from Nicki Minaj is the fact that she is versatile.
She knows how to kick it in the streets and she knows how to kick it in the corporate setting.
Right, because you can't do too much of either, you really can't.

It's unfortunate that at times hip hop culture will tell you to lean only to one side, when that is detrimental to your future.
It's detrimental for your growth.
It's detrimental to your longevity.

At a certain point as a woman; I'm not talking about as a man because we've seen The Blueprint with Jay.
We've seen that you could come in the game and do 10, 12, 15 - still win and still be the king of hip hop.
We have not seen that with a woman so show me the blueprint.
That's all I want you to do - show me the blueprint.

I think you are creating it, because Queen Latifah doesn't exist in that space anymore.
She went on to become an actress
Queen Latifah is someone who I tip my hat to because Queen Latifah looked at it and said, "Okay, wait, hmm, I mean I wanna be 40 years old rapping. I - the hip hop fans may not want to hear me when I'm 40 years old rapping.
So I'm going to move in a way so that every aspect of who I am can be seen."
Queen Latifah does musicals, movies, voice-overs for cartoons - is she a sellout or is she winning?

So these other bitches that only did rap and now they're washed, and they're living in, you know, low income housing - is that winning?
Just so that a nigga in the street can give me a fucking dap?
The same niggas that didn't buy my album any fucking way, that downloaded the shit?
Get the fuck out of here.

(Charlemagne)
Any regrets?

(Nicki Minaj)
I think my only regret would be not enjoying every single moment as I should have.

On what she would like to do outside of rap, her bigger purpose.
I have to pray on that.
I think that my purpose will eventually be related to some sort of movement for my younger fans really...
I really am interested in learning how to build the education system to a point where we have more of a success rate in terms of black children that go from high school to college.

I feel like college was not something that was engraved in my brain.
I don't feel like that ever happened.
Most of my closest girlfriends, it was just like once they got out of high school they figured, "Oh well, we're out of high school," or "I got my GED, I'm good," and I don't want my fans to think like that.

One day, you're going to look back and think "Wait a minute, did I really lose my life clubbing and miss out on a moment where I could've been building myself as a woman and having something to offer my children?"
We got so many girls right now having children and don't even know the first thing to say to a child.

You're having a child because I want to keep this dude or it just happened.
I want to get us to the place where it doesn't just happen and that we're smarter than that.
We're the ones in control again.
Why are we never in control?

Why are we stuck with a baby?
Why are we always stuck on the welfare line?
Why are we always stuck having to beg, borrow, and steal to provide for our children?
Why do we think it's something wrong for waiting to have a baby?

Waiting until you're 35 or 36 to have children; technology has changed - you can wait.
Have something to offer them.
That's something that's dear to my heart.
Doing something that make children feel like I don't have to rush to grow up.
I can enjoy my childhood.

(Charlemagne)
How did you escape being more than just an ass?
We said that the other day, before I was just a rapping butt.

(SB)
A butt with lyrics.

(Charlemagne)
How did you get out of that?

(Nicki Minaj)
Because I created a brand.
People take for granted how hard it is so shout out to every woman and man that's won.
It's very hard, mentally, this shit is draining.
For you to be able to get up there and do music that people love, and do interviews with a smile on your face and act like this shit ain't getting to you, it's draining.

It's crazy.
That's why so many artists go on drugs or become alcoholics.
When I was coming up, I never understood it.
I use to be like, "What? They are so ungrateful. Why are they on drugs? Why don't they fucking appreciate their success? I would kill to be where they are," until you get here and you are like, "Lord, is this the price I have to pay if I really want this?"
He's like, "Yup, now let's see who really want it."
I think I became more than that, because people cannot deny...

(Charlamagne)
You the shit.
Say it!
You don't have to be humble.
Be like Ray J.
"I'm tired of being humble."

(Nicki Minaj)
I'm not a cocky person by nature.