Nicki Minaj and Future cancel co-headline tour

By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 22 August 2018

Nicki Minaj and Future have cancelled their upcoming co-headline tour, which was due to begin next month, in order to “re-evaluate elements of production”.

The tour will now begin with the scheduled European dates next February, reaching the US next May – although American dates are yet to be confirmed. Due to scheduling conflicts, Future will not take part in the rescheduled North American shows.

In a video for fans on Twitter, Minaj explained: “This is all happening because I pushed my album back two months, and I just finished writing and recording literally hours before the album came out. So now I just simply don’t have the time to rehearse and be on the road in time to give you guys the level of a show I need to give. [We] are working tirelessly to give you the best show of my life. I really apologise, but it’ll be worth it”.

The announcement came shortly after reports in the American press that low ticket sales could force the run to be pulled. The New York Post published an article claiming that ticket sales were extremely low, quoting a Live Nation source as saying that some venues had sold less than 10% of their capacity.

It also came after Minaj, as promised, used this week’s edition of her Beats 1 radio show on Apple Music to rant about Travis Scott cheating her out of the number one spot her new album should have taken in the US album charts.

Scott’s latest LP, ‘Astroworld’, remained at number one for a second week on the Billboard album chart this week, meaning Minaj’s ‘Queen’ debuted at number two. Although both sold roughly the same number of physical copies and downloads, Scott beat Minaj on streams.

Minaj, of course, previously claimed in a series of tweets that Scott unfairly boosted his sales by giving away copies of his album with merch and concert tickets via the online store on his website. She then claimed that his girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, posting on Instagram about the tour gave him an unfair advantage – actually blaming their baby Stormi.

“I put my blood, sweat and tears in writing a dope album only for Travis Scott to have Kylie Jenner post a tour pass telling people to come see her and Stormi”, she wrote.

Scott is not technically giving away albums with merch and concert tickets – instead he’s been promising pre-sale access to tickets for his upcoming tour to people who buy albums and merch on his website. It’s actually Minaj who has been bundling CDs with t-shirts. Regardless, she apparently remains very angry about her chart position, while also maintaining that she’s not actually angry, despite going on and on and on and on about it.

“What we’re not gonna do is have that Auto-Tune man selling fucking sweaters telling you he sold half a million albums, because he fucking didn’t”, she said on her Beats 1 show. “You stupid fuck. You got your fucking homeboy talking for you and you got your girlfriend selling tour passes. Stop it. Knock it the fuck off”.

She went on: “When [Scott] comes along and sells a tour pass that has nothing to do with his fucking music and says he’s sold more than Kanye West and Nas – no you fucking didn’t, keep it the fuck real. I know I’m that bitch, I know I’m number one”.

However, she added: “Having said that, none of this is some serious anger shit. No, we are in a time right now where black music is prospering. I’m so excited to see where rap has come from and where we are. But right is right and wrong is wrong”.

Minaj also previously claimed that her bid for the number one spot was hindered by Spotify. The streaming firm, she said, had penalised her for premiering new tracks on Apple Music via her Beats 1 show. Spotify delayed ‘Queen’ going live by twelve hours, she claimed. Spotify has denied this. Still, as noted, Minaj did lose out on the number one position because of her streaming figures. Something that burns because, she claims, it was her who got streaming data added to the charts in the first place.

“You know how many bullets I took for you motherfuckers to get streaming to count on Billboard?” she said.

She then also lambasted artists for not reading the contracts they sign and not having “a clue what is happening” to their business behind the scenes. Which might not be relevant, though the advice that all artists should be on top of all the deals they sign is good.