Nicki Minaj says she received butt injections from a 'random' person and holds herself accountable for promoting the trend

• Nicki Minaj opened up about why she sought butt injections on The Joe Budden Podcast.
• She said she felt like she was not "good enough" compared to other women at the time.

Nicki Minaj revealed she received illegal butt injections in a conversation with rapper and media personality Joe Budden during a podcast interview released Wednesday. During the conversation, which starts at the 2:20 mark, she described the choice as "insane."

"It's not that you go to a doctor, a professional person. No, it's some random person," she told Budden.

Minaj explained she was inspired by the types of derrieres often celebrated in hip-hop. "[Lil'] Wayne, he was always talking about big booties. Wayne would have a new chick in the studio every session. It was always a new big booty there. They were his muses," she said.

Their presence affected how she saw herself.

"I didn't feel complete or good enough," she said. "This is what you're supposed to look like in the rap culture, and I don't look like that."

According to a 2020 report from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), the demand for butt implants rose by 22% between 2019 and 2020. That statistic only accounts for procedures performed by ASPS member surgeons, so the prevalence of illegal procedures, like Minaj's, could make that number much higher.

Minaj said she was not instructed to change the appearance of her butt by anyone but did endure friendly teasing as the "little sister" of YMCMB, the rap collective affiliated with Lil Wayne's record label Young Money Entertainment.

"I think they said stuff sometimes jokingly. But to a young girl or up and coming rapper or anything, when it's from someone like Lil' Wayne, it matters. You know?" Minaj said. "Even if they're joking, they don't know that the person that is there in that room with them is not finding it funny."

She now understands the impact of their words.

"A lot of times, you don't know how insecure a person is or what their insecurities are. So when you say certain things, around women especially, you can never take them back," Minaj said.

She continued: "So where they might have been playing with me probably thinking 'she's confident, she's good in her own skin,' they don't know that I always had that insecurity."

"They're just joking. They didn't mean any harm. But it wasn't a joke to me," the rapper added.

When Budden asked if she holds herself accountable for influencing the butt-augmentation trend, the mom of one admitted she does.

"I was one of the first people saying 'oh I'm not these people's parents,' but now I get it. I look at it from a different perspective now. Because superstars inadvertently become role models no matter what," Minaj said.

Listen to Minaj's full conversation with Budden below.