Tyler, The Creator Wanted Kanye West & Nicki Minaj on "I Ain't Got Time!" — Both Declined

"I'm like, 'How the fuck you hear this beat and can't think of shit?'"

Tyler, The Creator's new album, Flower Boy, which is due out this Friday, July 21, features guest appearances by A$AP Rocky, Frank Ocean, Lil Wayne, and Steve Lacy, among others. If the Odd Future ringleader had his way, though, Kanye West and Nicki Minaj would have joined the fray.

In an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music station Beats 1, Tyler revealed that he asked both West and Minaj to join him on Flower Boy banger "I Ain't Got Time!," but both artists declined to participate.

"I remember being at Ye's during Life of Pablo," Tyler explained. "I think he went to take a nap and I was just in the studio and [there] was an MPC there, there was a mic right there, and I was like, Noah—it's his engineer—'Just start recording me.' I just started smacking, I started clapping, started making weird noises, and added a 'boom boom boom' like that, and then I'm like, I'ma just add a hook, 'I ain't got timeeeeeeeeeee for these.' I was like damn, Kanye should take this song, he would sound so much cooler saying 'I ain't got time' than me, [but] he didn't like it."

While Kanye passed on the record because he didn't like it, Minaj said no for a completely different reason.



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"I wanted Nicki Minaj on that shit so fucking bad like you have no idea," Tyler added. "I reached out to her so many times, tried to get her number, she couldn't think of nothing. She couldn't think of nothing. That's what they relayed [to me]. I'm like, 'How the fuck you hear this beat and can't think of shit?' I'm like, 'Nicki playin me right now.'" 

Since Tyler had to send the record to Nicki's team, there's no guarantee that Nicki actually ever heard the record or that it was properly pitched to her, but regardless of the reason or circumstance, Tyler believes it was, for Nicki, a missed opportunity.

"If Nicki got on that shit, it would bring not only me to a newer audience, but it would bring her to an audience of people who don't think her shit's tight. And that's no shade to her."

Ironically, Kanye and Nicki not taking the time to appear on a song that was eventually titled "I Ain't Got Time!" makes for the perfect backstory.



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