Nicki Minaj discusses working with J. Cole for the first time

Last month, Nicki Minaj released her fifth studio album, Pink Friday 2, as the follow-up to 2018's Queen, and as a continuation of her 2010 debut, Pink Friday. The album features a Billie Eilish sample, as well as collaborations with the likes of Drake, Lil Wayne, Future, Lil Uzi Vert, and J. Cole.

Speaking to Darden, Minaj revealed that her collaboration with J. Cole was surprising because she never thought of him "as a person that [she] would ever have a conversation with, far less a whole song with". The song "Let Me Calm Down" came about towards the end of the album process, and is a particularly personal one to Minaj. When thinking about features, J. Cole was one of the first people to come to mind.

"J. Cole is somebody that my fans had been asking me to work with for ten years. He and I are both probably antisocial, so the chances of running into either one of us are slim, and we just never had a communication anyway," Minaj says, explaining that because he had started being more active, she decided to reach out to him. J. Cole visited Minaj's studio in Malibu, and under the conditions of listening to the song in headphones before playing it on speakers, she played him "Let Me Calm Down".

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"I could tell he was feeling it. And he was like, 'This is really personal. I almost feel like I shouldn't be hearing it'," she added, explaining that whilst he enjoyed the song, both of their schedules were busy enough that she wasn't sure if it was going to work as a collaboration.

Two days later, after asking Nicki Minaj for further details about what she was exploring lyrically in the song, J. Cole sent over his verse. "I was like, what the hell? I felt like I had sat down on the couch with a therapist and then they put everything in the song. And I kind of felt like a little bit violated," she added. "I'm so appreciative of him and also his aura... That's dope. He never struck me as a person that I would ever have a conversation with, far less a whole song with that I love on my album. But here we are."