Nicki Minaj visited Zane Lowe at Apple Music 1 and detailed her latest single, “Last Time I Saw You.” Speaking on the release, Minaj acknowledges that the single isn’t what she would typically release.
I knew for the album, of course, I would have to discuss certain things or whatever. I just didn’t intend on it being a single. A lot of times people forget that I do a lot of features, and so these are not my actual songs. These are not songs from my album. And so sometimes people forget the kind of music that I’m able to create because it’s been a long time since they heard an album, and most of the times they get those kind of cuts on the album.
This time when I heard the beat, the first thing I did was I wrote the hook. And when I wrote the hook, to me, it felt it was… The vibe of it was really talking about a loss, a real loss you know. But to not make the song feel only directed at one kind of loss. When I wrote the singing verse, I tried to expand it and think even about relationships. And then by the time I got to the rap, it was like I had included all relationships that I had lost before, because I mentioned even best friends and stuff like that.
I just wanted the next song that I put out, Zane, to represent my growth, but not just as an artist, but as a human being. I’ve experienced so many things that I hadn’t experienced five years ago, and that’s just the truth.
– Nicki Minaj
You can hear the new single below.