Nicki Minaj Loved Making 'Up Out My Face' Video With Mariah Carey

Nicki Minaj
Photo: MTV News

Nicki Minaj says she was so surprised that she got a call to work with Mariah Carey on the remix of "Up Out My Face" that she kept the collaboration very hush-hush.

"That one, I didn't believe until I was physically in the studio that I was doing with something with Mariah," the New York native told MTV News last week. "I didn't even tell anyone I shot a video with Mariah, because I didn't even believe. In the back of my mind, I felt like, 'This video is not gonna come out. There's no way I'm gonna do a video with Mariah Carey before I even put out my album.' Then, when it came out, I think it was the #1 video on YouTube in one day, something crazy like that. She's an icon, I've loved her since I was little, like 'Vision of Love,' 'Someday.' I was one of those little girls in the mirror singing her songs with my mother."

Much like her fellow Mariah Carey collaborator and good friend Gucci Mane, Minaj said the real Mariah was nothing like she imagined.

"When I met her, she was so funny and silly," Nicki recalled. "I thought when I was gonna work with Mariah, [she] was gonna be like this diva. But we were cracking jokes the whole day. She's a sweet, down-to-earth person."

Nicki and Mimi had their names written on two giant baby doll boxes in the video. In the Nick Cannon-directed clip, the two bust out and have a good time changing outfits and playing with men. The doll angle plays perfectly with Nicki's "black Barbie" persona.

"I think it was dope," Minaj said about the video. "A lot of times, more famous artists or more confident artists take from a younger artist but they'll never include you in that. I feel like she liked the whole doll thing and she wanted to do it with me. But she said that: She said, 'Everybody's gonna say "she's doing Nicki." But I told her, she's always had a doll persona, like all that 'doll baby' [stuff]. So it goes perfect with Barbie and we had fun. That's all that matters."

The remix will appear on Mariah's Angels Advocate remix LP, due on March 30.

Nicki has been making the rounds with guest appearances recently, from Mariah to Robin Thicke's "Shakin' It 4 Daddy," and of course Lil Wayne's Rebirth, and she recently shot the video for "My Chick Bad" from Ludacris' forthcoming Battle of the Sexes LP, which is slated for release early next month.

"He sent me the beat. He didn't have verses on it yet," Minaj said about working beside Cris. "I told him, 'You could take what I did to the next level because you're animated and crazy. People know you for that. I kinda went animated and crazy on that. Luda is definitely one of those people — I love when people don't take themselves too seriously."