Nicki Minaj insists she’ll always keep her hip-hop roots

Nicki Minaj has insisted that she has not abandoned her hip-hop roots.

The ‘Beez in the Trap’ rapper said that while her new album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded features more pop productions, “the streets” will always be close to her heart.

Minaj responded to criticism in a new interview with MTV News, explaining: “What can I say? I don’t know what I gotta do anymore. I don’t know what I can possibly do. What [have] I gotta do? Go and rob a bank?

“I’m still me, hip-hop culture is still in my heart. That can never leave me. I know I’m always gonna be street, because I can’t pretend to be street. It’s a lot of people walking around here pretending to be that, but I ain’t gonna call nobody out right now.”

Minaj recently confessed that she is ‘irked’ by comparisons to Lady GaGa and feels that the artists have little in common.

She has said that her video for ‘Beez in the Trap’ is a thank you to strippers who have always supported her career.