Steve Madden did want to work with Nicki Minaj, according to an unearthed interview.
In a 2015 interview with Vibe Magazine, Steve Madden himself revealed he wanted to collaborate with Minaj but instead decided to go with Iggy Azalea — a choice he ultimately regretted.
“I was gonna do a collaboration with Nicki Minaj and we got into a fight the first minute we met,” Steve Madden told the publication.
Madden added, “And then we patched it up. We were cool. We text each other, we became sort of buddies. We were thinking of doing something, and I would’ve, but I was with Iggy and I thought, ‘Coke and Pepsi.’ It was a mistake. I made a mistake and I wish that I could go back in time and work with Nicki instead of Iggy.”
Iggy Azalea was a newcomer on the rap scene with a major hit titled, “Fancy.” Ironically, Minaj also had a short-lived feud with the Australian rapper.
Minaj again finds herself beefing with another female rap newcomer in Cardi B. An ongoing dispute between the two women saw retail brands join in on the fray after Cardi claimed she elevated Minaj’s “bag” by turning down brand deals, including a capsule collection with Diesel. Minaj is the face of Diesel’s new anti-bullying campaign.
In response to Cardi’s claims, Minaj tweeted that she turned down a deal with Steve Madden several times. The official Twitter page for the shoe retailer refuted those claims, urging the “Queen” rapper to “stop lying.“
Cardi B has also asked Minaj to quit telling fibs. After Minaj asserted her friend Rah Ali viciously attacked Cardi at last month’s Harper’s Bazaar ICONS dinner party, Cardi stated footages would prove otherwise.
“This my thing Nicki Minaj, right? How you saying I got ragged by Rah Ali when there is so many footages of that night, every single angle, and where am I getting ragged at?” she said. “And second of all, how you say I was the wild animal, I attacked you, you was mortified, humiliated, playing the victim, you need to pick a side? Do you want to be the victim or the gangsta?”
She added, “You lie so much you can’t even keep up with your [expletive] lies. First, lying that you got the footage but now saying you want to pay someone $100,000 if they give you the footage. Make sense when you talking.”