Everything We Know About Nicki Minaj’s ‘The Pink Print’
The Release Date
The big question, and the one that nobody has the answer to just yet. The delay largely came from her work on American Idol and her retail and business projects, but now that there's music to back up the claims that the album is in the works, the question of when, exactly, it will see the light of day looms larger. She announced last May, to little surprise, that she wouldn't return to the singing competition in order to focus on her album, and mentioned in September of last year that she was about to get started, with a target of a 2014 release.Then in November, Nicki made reference to working on the album, repeating that it's slated for 2014; she followed up the release of "Lookin' Ass" in February by telling Hot 97 that The Pink Print wouldn't have a release date at all, and would instead just drop from the sky a la Beyonce. Of course, the problem with the Beyonce tactic is that no one had any idea Bey's album was coming until it just landed in everyone's laps late one night, whereas Nicki has been talking about this project for the better part of 15 months now. The most recent mention we've got came during her interview with Seacrest, when she mentioned that a lot of people were wondering when the album would come, but "I'd rather not say the date yet."
Our prediction? We'll get a seven day countdown, or at least something in that neighborhood, similar to Lil Wayne's three day heads up he gave fans for his Dedication 5 mixtape last summer. That would allow her Barbz to get their pre-sales in motion and set her up for a No. 1 debut; the reality, of course, is that albums have been raining down from the clouds with a shorter and shorter announcement time for the past year. It's hard to tell when we'll see The Pink Print, but it won't come before Wayne's Carter V, at least.