Nigerian pop sensation, Iyanya Mbuk is trying to secure a duet with sexy American rapper, Nicki Minaj, Nigerian Entertainment Today.
A top industry source confirmed the Project Fame winner is willing to pay Nicki as much as $300,000 – approximately N50m – to jump on a track with him.
With talks already having reached an advanced stage between both camps, Iyanya, who just returned to the country from London where he performed at a classy society wedding, is set to jet back to the United States to seal the deal.
‘It’s an ongoing project,’ a source tells NET. ‘He has to now go back to Los Angeles again to try and get her on the track’. Minaj, who has won four American Music Awards, eight BET Awards, two MTV Music Awards, five Billboard Music Awards among others, is signed to Young Money Entertainment.
She has never collaborated with a Nigerian act. There were, however, recent reports of a pending collaboration with KCEE who, like Iyanya, is an MTN Ambassador.
Iyanya’s manager, Ubi Franklin tells our correspondent a Nicki Minaj collabo is not in the works.
‘Who said that, where did you hear that?” he asked; adding ‘there’s no gist like that, if anything like that would happen, you’ll hear from our publicist.’
When probed further, however, on the existence or otherwise of such a paid collaboration with Nicki Minaj, Franklin said: ‘I’ll be so glad if it happens, I’m very open to the idea of doing a song with her.’
It is not the first time a Nigerian music act would be paying for collaborations with foreign acts, with the likes of D’Banj and P-Square among those who have paid huge sums for collaborative efforts with US stars.
Source: NET