“How we lost millions trying to feature Nicki Minaj” – Singer, Iyanya recounts

Popular Nigerian singer, Iyanya has recounted how he lost a couple of millions while trying to feature American rapper, Nicki Minaj.

Following the success of the song that shot him to limelight, Kukere, Iyanya Onoyom Mbuka and his team wanted to do more.

He shared they they were pressured and they decided it was time for an international move, when music executive, Ubi Franklin suggested, Nicki Minaj.

Iyanya’s and his team took to trip to the United States, and met Nicki Minaj for the feature. However, could not afford the $200,000 coat to sign her to a song, which they couldn’t afford at that time.

The Like hit maker wrote; “So kukere was so massive we did all we could to get it out there and then came the pressure of the next single. We had “Flavour” already produced and recorded but for some reason we felt it wasn’t the next single after kukere.

On one beautiful morning we decided to remake “Kukere” and turn it into a new song that became “Ur waist” Bigups to @Therealdtunes changed everything and we recorded “Ur waist” and we were clear that was the next single.

Ur waist was so massive we decided it should go international and we needed the right artiste to help with that journey. @ubifranklin1 suggested Nicki Minaj and I asked how we’re gonna pay for that, he laughed and said “if your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough”.

We started making contacts to who will get us Nicki Minaj and we found someone Who had direct contacts and he asked that we fly to Atlanta for a meeting with him and then he will take us to meet Nicki Minaj for the collaboration.

@ubifranklin1 and I flew straight to Atlanta and we started meetings that will lead to the reason when we were in Atlanta. Omo na so them start to carry us go club yo light bottles to show say money Dey omo no be person tell us to wise o.

Before we met Nicki Minaj our contact person had taken us to meet R.Kelly and 2chains, And a few other celebs who were in Atlanta at the time. Oyaaaa the day don reach to meet Nicki Minaj, na so them come tell us say to get her on a verse we needed $200,000, we started making calls to raise the money, we pushed and we were able to raise $70,000 they said Nope.

We called all the chairmen at on our contact list and nada. Now here is the painful part, our tickets, Hotel for at least 10Days already, food and car hire service was already around $23,000 and then @ubifranklin1 started calculating that we for just stay Nigeria and added that money to our $70k. We beg tire and nothing.

The last Night before we left Atlanta, we were invited to a studio and the message was “get there at 11:45pm no entry after 11:45pm @ubifranklin1 got a car ready for 9pm and the place was around Buckhead not far from our hotel(10mins) but we wanted to be there 2hours early.

She show studio sha at 1:am, she didn’t come for our recording, she came for a diffident song, but our contact wanted us to know we he had the direct link to get her on a song. We tried to take pictures them tell us say we no fit take pictures. Our plan was take pictures send back home to give our chairmen Ginger to see we could raise the money, omo zero picture, zero collabo na so we return naija continue our Hustle.”

See his post below here:

So kukere was so massive we did all we could to get it out there and then came the pressure of the next single.
We had “Flavour” already produced and recorded but for some reason we felt it wasn’t the next single after kukere.

— its iyanyaaaaaa💥 (@Iyanya) March 30, 2023

On one beautiful morning we decided to remake “Kukere” and turn it into a new song that became “Ur waist” Bigups to @Therealdtunes changed everything and we recorded “Ur waist” and we were clear that was the next single.

— its iyanyaaaaaa💥 (@Iyanya) March 30, 2023