As Stephen Colbert often says on The Late Show, if you want to truly, deeply peer into the soul of an artist the best way to do it is via his show’s signature “Colbert Questionert” probing list of queries. Nicki Minaj found that out on Tuesday night (Jan. 16) when she sat for the pre-taped segment in which the Pink Friday 2 MC revealed the burning answers behind such soul-searching questions as: “what is the best sandwich?”
There are no wrong answers, even though Minaj’s response was definitely far from standard. “Turkey, cheese, lettuce, tomato, salt and pepper, oil and vinegar, jalapeños, mayonnaise, mustard, toasted, hero,” Minaj told her old pal Colbert in her signature rapid-fire cadence.
Her next answer, however, was even more unique. Asked about her first concert, Minaj recalled going to the Hot 97 Summer Jam in 2001 when Jay-Z shocked the crowd by bringing out surprise guest Michael Jackson. “Many, many years ago… and Michael Jackson came out. Yes,” she recalled, rolling her eyes when Colbert asked what MJ sang. “He didn’t perform, he came out of this box and the people went crazy.”
The “Anaconda” rapper also, of course, said the snake is the scariest animal and that the apple is superior to the orange, because it could help feed her and her infant son, affectionately known as “Papa Bear.” In an answer that certainly pleased observant Catholic Colbert, Minaj opined that when we die, the good go to heaven and the bad go to hell, naturally. “Pearly gates, fiery pit, what more do you need to know?” Colbert said.
Nicki added that her favorite action movie is a tie between Gladiator and Black Panther, that she would never be caught dead in an aisle seat on a plane — she doesn’t worry about climbing over someone to get to the bathroom because she “doesn’t fly on those kind of planes” — and her least favorite smell is when the garbage piles up on the streets of New York.
She also noted that her earliest memory is of wanting to go to a chain called Burger Boys in her native Trinidad and when asked which song she could listen to on repeat for eternity, Minaj chose the Whitney Houston classic “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.”
Check out all of Minaj’s answers below.
