The popular Nigerian musician Iyanya recently explained on Twitter why he was unable to get Nicki Minaj to feature in the remix of his song “Ur Waist.”
He detailed the entire incident, from the pressure to build on the success of “Kukere” to the failed attempt to work with Nicki Minaj, in a series of tweets on Thursday.
Iyanya claims that following the success of “Kukere,” he and his group decided to release “Ur waist” as their next single.
The song was also a huge success, and they decided to take it internationally by teaming up with Nicki Minaj.
They flew to Atlanta to meet with a contact who had direct connections to Nicki Minaj.
The acquaintance introduced them to numerous other celebs, including R. Kelly and 2chains, before arranging a meeting with Nicki Minaj.
However, when they did meet Nicki Minaj, they learned that they would have to pay her $200,000 to give them a verse.
Even though they raised $70,000, they still fell short.
They tried calling everyone they knew, but they were unable to raise the money needed.
To make matters worse, they had already spent a large amount of money on flights, accommodation, and other costs.
They ultimately failed to obtain the collaboration and went back to Nigeria without a photograph or a collaboration.
See his tweets below;
So kukere was so massive we did all we could to get it out there and then came the pressure of the next single.
We had “Flavour” already produced and recorded but for some reason we felt it wasn’t the next single after kukere.— its iyanyaaaaaa💥 (@Iyanya) March 30, 2023
Ur waist was so massive we decided it should go international and we needed the right artiste to help with that journey.@ubifranklin1 suggested Nicki Minaj and I asked how we’re gonna pay for that, he laughed and said “if your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough”😂😂
— its iyanyaaaaaa💥 (@Iyanya) March 30, 2023
@ubifranklin1 and I flew straight to Atlanta and we started meetings that will lead to the reason when we were in Atlanta.
Omo na so them start to carry us go club yo light bottles to show say money Dey 😂😂😂😂 omo no be person tell us to wise o😂😂— its iyanyaaaaaa💥 (@Iyanya) March 30, 2023
Oyaaaa the day don reach to meet Nicki Minaj, na so them come tell us say to get her on a verse we needed $200,000, we started making calls to raise the money, we pushed and we were able to raise $70,000 they said Nope.
We called all the chairmen at on our contact list and nada.— its iyanyaaaaaa💥 (@Iyanya) March 30, 2023
The last Night before we left Atlanta, we were invited to a studio and the message was “get there at 11:45pm no entry after 11:45pm😭😭 @ubifranklin1 got a car ready for 9pm and the place was around Buckhead not far from our hotel(10mins) but we wanted to be there 2hours early😂
— its iyanyaaaaaa💥 (@Iyanya) March 30, 2023
She show studio sha at 1:am, she didn’t come for our recording, she came for a diffident song, but our contact wanted us to know we he had the direct link to get her on a song. We tried to take pictures them tell us say we no fit take pictures 😭😭
— its iyanyaaaaaa💥 (@Iyanya) March 30, 2023