Ice Spice Says She Didn’t Sign With Nicki Minaj’s Record Label Because She Was ‘Already Signed’

Ice Spice says her love for Nicki Minaj still runs deep despite not signing to her label.

In a new interview with Keke Palmer for the Baby, This is Keke Palmer podcast, Ice Spice addressed the reports that Minaj had once been interested in signing her to her Heavy On It imprint.

Near the 24-minute mark in the video linked above, Ice clarified that she was already under contract at the time of Minaj’s offer.

“I tried to really let our lawyers handle everything and our managers, but I was already signed when she was trying to sign me. So I think that’s where the hiccups were, because there was really no room anymore at that point to make a new deal,” she said. “I’m signed to two labels, so that was already like a thing.”

Still, she explained that there were no hard feelings, saying, “It’s all love like always. I still look up to her. She’s mother.”

Ice, who first worked with Minaj in 2023 on a remix for “Princess Diana” before collaborating on “Barbie World” from the Barbie film that same year.

“Insane. Crazy, like, crazy, crazy, crazy” Ice said of working with the Pink Friday rapper. “I always wanted that to be the case, but it’s just like when it happens, you’re like, Whoa, is this real life? Two records with her, I was gassed. Of course I still am.”

She continued, “We would do a lot of sending back and forth via text and stuff like that, but she would always, like, gas what I did. She would just be like, ‘Oh, I love your accent and like your tone and flow.’ And I would be screaming.”

Last June, leaked text messages showed Ice calling Minaj “ungrateful” while venting to a now-former friend about contract negotiations. Neither rapper addressed the leak publicly until Ice spoke with Rolling Stone for their July 2024 cover story.

“We don’t have the closest relationship, you know? But we’re definitely good,” she told Rolling Stone’s Jeff Ihaza at the time. “We’re mutuals. We had smash records together.”

It’s worth noting that, as of this writing, Minaj and Ice are no longer following each other on Instagram, but they remain mutuals on X.

“I think that the saddest part of the whole situation, it’s somebody I knew for so many years and called my friend [and] had me open up and be vulnerable with them, and then took complete advantage of that for her own benefit,” Ice said of the friend who leaked the messages. “So that was the saddest part really, just feeling used, basically.”

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