Nicki Minaj is back with “Last Time I Saw You,” the first preview of her forthcoming album Pink Friday 2. Stream the new song below.
In a statement on her website, Minaj thanked her fans for their continued love and support, and shared how happy she is to finally be releasing the new single. “I have not been excited about the release of a song to this extent for maybe… I don’t know, I can’t even tell you, I don’t even remember when!” she wrote, before hyping up the new album a bit. “Please enjoy the song as much as I have enjoyed creating it, and just know that Pink Friday 2 is going to be the best album that’s been released in years!!!”
A dreamy, melancholic track, “Last Time I Saw You” gives Minaj a platform to explore the feelings of longing and regret that come with losing someone you love. “I wish I’da hugged you tighter the last time that I saw you/ I wish I didn’t waste precious time the night when I called you,” she sings. Her singing, by the way, is center stage on the track — though she has one rap verse, Minaj’s vocals carry the melodies and really hit home the reflective vibe, with the perfect amount of ethereal delay effects to boot.
But for as well as “Last Time I Saw You” captures a feeling of loss, it also offers a message of hope. Replying to one fan on Twitter, Minaj explained that the song actually led her to appreciate those she loves even more. “Even tho reliving the memories did feel ‘sad,’ after I wrote, recorded, [and] lived [with] it, it actually made me pay more attention to the people I still DO have, and how important it is to cherish them and have fun NOW in the moment,” she wrote. “Telling them how much you adore them, etc. [It] made me so happy.”
“Last Time I Saw You” is the first single off Pink Friday 2, which Minaj announced this past June. It’ll be her first full-length LP since 2018’s Queen, and the sequel to her celebrated debut, 2010’s Pink Friday. The new album is due on November 17th.
Earlier this summer, Minaj shared “Barbie World,” a tune from the Barbie soundtrack featuring Ice Spice and sampling Aqua’s original piece of pop perfection, “Barbie Girl.” In April, Minaj shared her remix of Ice Spice’s “Princess Diana,” and later that month she teamed up with Kim Petras for the single “Alone.”
