Nigerian pop sensation, Iyanya Mbuk is trying to secure a duet with sexy American rapper, Nicki Minaj, an online entertainment firm has reliably gathered.
A top industry source confirmed the Project Fame winner is willing to pay as much as $300,000 – approximately N50m – to jump on a track with him.
With talks already having reached an advanced stage between both camps, Iyanya, who just returned to the country from London where he performed at a classy society wedding, is set to jet back to the United States to seal the deal.
‘It’s an on-going project’, a source reveals. ‘He has to now go back to Los Angeles again to try and get her on the track’.
Minaj, who has won 4 American Music Awards, 8 BET Awards, two MTV Music Awards, 5 Billboard Music Awards among others, is signed to Young Money Entertainment.
She has never collaborated with a Nigerian act. There were however recent reports of a pending collaboration with KCEE who, like Iyanya, is an MTN Ambassador.
Iyanya’s manager, Ubi Franklin tells our correspondent a Nicki Minaj collabo is not in the works.
‘Who said that, where did you hear that? He asked; adding ‘there’s no gist like that, if anything like that would happen, you’ll hear from our publicist.’
When probed further, however on the existence or otherwise of such a paid collaboration with Nicki Minaj, Franklin said: ‘I’ll be so glad if it happens, I’m very open to the idea of doing a song with her.’
It is not the first time a Nigerian music act would be paying for collaborations with foreign acts, with the likes of D’Banj and P-Square among those who have paid huge sums for collaborative efforts with US stars.