Earlier this week, Reginald Saunders, an A&R representing Trina, alleged that Nicki Minaj was slow to promote and shoot a video for the pair’s collaborative song, “BAPS.” The statement garnered a response from Minaj on her Beats 1 Queen Radio platform, which then prompted Trina to share her side of the controversy.
On Wednesday evening (Aug. 14), the Diamond Princess artist took to Instagram Live to take accountability for what has been said by her A&R and state that Minaj did her part. “This is my situation, This is my issue, this is my album, this is my brand, this is my name,” she said. “I built it from the ground up, therefore I would do anything necessary to protect that.”
The Miami native chalked up the situation to bad business and said the “BAPS” video in question is not the issue. “I had a 45-minute conversation on the phone with Nicki Minaj about business, about my record, about my song, about everything,” she continued. “It’s not about a video, it’s bigger than a video. The video is just a portion of what’s happening. This is more about making sure the business is right, making sure the radio is right, making sure the record is doing whatever it needs to be doing on radio. I had this conversation with my team, full out, full-fledged. Everybody understands this, everybody understood this. There was never a discussion that the video was never going to be done, that wasn’t the discussion we had. The discussion was more so about the business.”
Before stating that there’s no beef between her and Minaj, Trina addressed her team for speaking on any matters concerning her brand before she had a chance to clear the air. “My team speaking out, my team got so much to say, Imma take the blame for my team because guess what? Me and my team, we dropped the ball,” she said. “Bad business is what’s causing all of this havoc to happen. All of this nonsense, all of this drama, these feelings, this personal, everybody got an opinion, that’s what it is, it’s bad business. It has nothing do with any artist that’s featured on my album. It has something to do with me trusting people that let me down.”
Putting the blame on her back, Trina said she will come out victorious from the encounter, highlighting the work she put in to create The One album. “I worked six years for this. I don’t expect nobody, not Nick, not nobody else on the album, not my team, not nobody, to do what I need to be done for my project,” she stated.
Trina’s sixth studio album was released in mid-June, featuring artists like 2 Chainz, K. Michelle, Lil Wayne, Plies, Kelly Price, and more.
Trina Has SPOKEN!!!! pic.twitter.com/v91elPTG4n
— . (@DOLCEGAYBANA) August 15, 2019
Watch the full video below.