Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 11/11/2012 at 12:05 PM News

The Popdust Files: nicki minaj, upcoming albums

They don’t call her the “hardest-working woman in the business” for nothing, you know. Nicki Minaj recently had a little pow-wow with British DJ Tim Westwood and some of her more fervent #TeamNickiMinajUK members, where she talked about her upcoming “fly-on-the-wall” reality special on E! and her new Re-Up re-issue of Roman Reloaded, which Minaj says will be eight tracks, and all of them hip-hop, agreeing with Westwood’s comparison of the tracks to her early mixtapes.

But the real revelation in the interview came when Minaj revealed that the RE-Up was mostly meant to “hold [her] fans over for the third album.” Westwood of course asked when that third album could be expected, and Nicki answered in a whisper: “2013.” She refused to divulge any further info about the album’s release date or the what or when for the singles, but did say that some of the beats for the album had already come in——so there’s that.

ThatGrapeJuice, where we first saw the interview, expresses some healthy skepticism about Nicki maintaining a Rihanna-like once-a-year album schedule, but with Nicki’s hyperactive work ethic—learned from her Young Money mentor, no doubt-we can’t say we expected any different, long-term. We hope LP3 is a bit more focused than LP2, but with as much music as Nicki puts out, we’re not gonna get too hung up on consistency. Looking forward to the new supply.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9-PcCIrp34s