Nicki Minaj Pushes Back ‘Queen’ Release Date to August 17

Nicki Minaj has decided to push back the release of her new album Queen from August 10th to August 17th.

Nicki confirmed the one week delay by posting an editor’s note on her just released Essentials playlist on Apple Music called Nicki Minaj Takeover.

“My darlings!!! I have a huge surprise that I can’t share until the day before #Queen drops. So in the meantime, check out this playlist I made for you guys. I did #FEFE with my new BFF from BROOKLYN. He’s a little funny looking but he’s really sweet under all those tats. New York til da DEF!!!! Ha! Last time I teamed up with YG was for his remix to “My Hitta.” We recently performed #BigBank at the BET Awards and had a blast wit my dudes Big Sean and 2 Chainz. I have classic bops with all 3 of them so I’m including them on this list. I’m super excited about my recent collaboration with Ariana Grande. She’s one of the realest artists I’ve had the pleasure of working with. She couldn’t fly with me to Turks to shoot the #BedVideo so we shot her scenes in Malibu. We’re actually working on edit number 2 for the #BedVideo to include all the fun stuff we had to remove. I love “Ball For Me” with Post Malone. Not sure why he won’t release the video. It’s DOPE!!! I hope you enjoy my playlist. Can’t wait for you guys to hear my 4th album QUEEN ON AUGUST 17!!!!!!!”

Nicki had hinted at possible delay of her album because of a Tracy Chapman sample that she previously didn’t know about. She revealed that a song on Queen “features 1 of the greatest rappers of all time” but the sample clearance might cause the delay.

Nicki has now decided to play safe and push the album back by one week which means she will release on the same day as her good friend Ariana Grande’s next album Sweetener. You can listen to her playlist below.