Nicki Minaj’s Spot-On Impression Of Adele’s Accent Is A Must-See

Nicki Minaj’s latest remix was an instant hit — even though it involved no music. After late-night host James Corden played a 2016 clip of Adele rapping to Minaj’s “Monster” for “Carpool Karaoke,” he put the “Anaconda” hitmaker in the hot seat, asking, “What does Nicki Minaj’s impression of Adele sound like?” Proving that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Minaj gave the “Easy on Me” singer’s North London accent, complete with exaggerated hand gestures, her best shot, and did not disappoint.

“All right, in order for me to channel Adele, I sort of have to think like a Black lady in London, right? Because the thing is, normally everybody knows, I talk — my British accent is sort of like a posh white lady, a rich white lady,” she began during The Late Late Show with James Corden’s Thursday, Feb. 3 episode, referencing her British rap alter ego, Martha Zolanski. “But with Adele, I sort of have to, like, transform. ... Like, you know, she might’ve used to sell crack and ... like, maybe she used to be hustling, like, nickels and dimes in the hood and then, you know ... she got her big break. That’s what I see when I see her; like, she always, like, so expressive.”

The impression was all in good fun, though, with Minaj gushing that seeing Adele’s “Monster” verse made her whole year and that she “probably got a thousand phone calls” after the episode aired. In 2019, Minaj even created a fan frenzy when she told Entertainment Tonight that she had an Adele collaboration in the works. “Adele made me swear to secrecy that I’m not allowed to tell anyone that I’m working with her. And that we already shot a video. And it’s an epic song,” she said at the time.

Shortly afterward, however, the “Super Bass” rapper tweeted that her comments were never meant to be taken seriously. “Omg guys. I thought everyone could clearly see I was being sarcastic,” Minaj wrote in October 2019. “Sh*t! Now I have to go to Adele’s studio & steal some files. Who’s in the UK? I got a job for you.”

As fans of Minaj’s music know, this was hardly Minaj’s first time attempting an English accent. In fact, she admitted to British pop group Little Mix on her Queen Radio show in 2018 that she envied the way the women speak: “Do you guys know how cute you are? Let me tell you, if there’s one thing I could change about myself, no kidding, it would be my accent. I wish I could talk like that all the time. I wish I could wake up in the morning and talk like that because I just think it’s so sexy.”

Though her Adele collaboration hasn’t come to fruition — yet, anyway — Minaj dropped a music video for her new single “Do We Have a Problem?” with Lil Baby on Friday, Feb. 4, and she promised Corden that she’ll drop her new album before summer 2022. Hey, there’s always a chance the women could hit the studio together before then.