Fans finally got that long-teased Nicki Minaj and Drake collaboration, courtesy of her new album, Pink Friday 2.

Minaj celebrated her 41st birthday on Friday, December 8, by dropping her fifth studio album. The follow-up to 2018’s Queen featured appearances from J. Cole, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Wayne and Future, but one song that caught Barbz’s attention was “Needle.” The track marks Minaj’s first collab with Drake, 37, since 2021’s “Seeing Green” — and the chemistry between them is still red hot.

“Friends were pessimistic ’bout our love, heard they tight now / We both know they’re miserable at home, f–k ’em all,” raps Drake in his verse. Minaj comes in, and she’s “Shadin’ like silhouettes, spinnin’ like pirouettes / It gave nothin’, bitch, thank you for zero, next / Damn, Drizzy, another bitter ex, shout out my intellects.”

Drake and Minaj sing the final chorus, in which they acknowledge how rare it was for them to find each other in life: “Pull up the Maybach and bend your leg back / Let’s engage that, don’t delay that / You’re like a needle, life’s a haystack / Friends they can leave us, you could stay back.”

Her Minajesty! Nicki Minaj made a splash in the music industry with the launch of her rap career — and she has been taking the world by storm ever since. Born Onika Tanya Maraj in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Minaj moved to Queens, New York, at the age of 5 with her family. […]

Drake and Minaj first worked together on “BedRock,” a single released by hip-hop group/label Young Money Entertainment in 2009. It’s considered Minaj’s debut, leading to multiple collaborations with the “God’s Plan” rapper.

The two teamed up on “Moment 4 Life” from her Pink Friday album and “Up All Night” from Drake’s Thank Me Later. From there, she and Drake would work together on “Make Me Proud” from Drake’s Take Care, as well as “Only” and “Truffle Butter” from her  album, The Pinkprint, and the 2017 single “No Frauds.” Drake also had a notable cameo in Minaj’s “Anaconda” video, in which she gave him a spicy lap dance.

The longtime friends frequently sparked romance rumors with how flirty and physical they would get on stage, but Minaj clarified her relationship with Drake on “Only,” rapping that she “never f—ked [Lil] Wayne / I never f—ked Drake.” Though Drake said that he would be “first in line” to have sex with her when she was single, Minaj married Kenneth Petty in 2019. The couple welcomed their son in October 2020. That same month, Minaj said she was excited for her baby to have “playdates” with Drake’s baby boy, Adonis, now 6.

Nicki Minaj and Drake attend the 2017 Billboard Music Awards on May 21, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Kevin Mazur/BBMA2017/Getty Images for dcp
Minaj spoke with Zane Lowe about her latest Drake collaboration on Apple Music 1’s New Music Daily show on September 1. “I’ll just say I really love the song. I know my fans are going to love the song,” she said. “I know the world’s going to love the song. And that’s all I will say about that.”

At the time, Drake hadn’t completed his part of the collaboration. Minaj told her fans — the Barbz — to “let Drizzy Drake know that Pink Friday 2 is coming out …. and we are waiting on his contribution.”

Nicki Minaj found love where her fans least expected it. The rapper raised eyebrows when she went public with Kenneth “Zoo” Petty, who is a registered sex offender, in December 2018. Since then, the couple have been unfazed by the backlash surrounding their whirlwind romance. They tied the knot in 2019 and welcomed their son, whose […]

Drake previously told the crowd at his July 8 concert at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena that the team-up was on the way. “I’m gonna give away one thing for you tonight because I got a lot of love for Detroit,” said Drake, per Billboard. “So I’m gonna have to tell you that me and Nicki Minaj did our first song together in, like, a really long time. I got a lot of love for her.”

Initially, fans thought Minaj would appear on his album, For All the Dogs, which dropped on October 6, but they were disappointed when she wasn’t among the featured performers. It would be two more months before “Needle” saw the light of day ( Minaj pushed her album back from its original November 17 release date to her birthday, December 8.)

After a one-week delay, the free, long-running, downtown entertainment series Friday After 5 will be in full force as it kicks off its 28th season tonight along the Owensboro Riverfront.

This year, themed as “Back to Our Roots,” will see the return of the RiverPark Center hosting a stage for the series for the first time since 2021 that will host the headlining acts each week.

The Minneapolis-based group Free Fallin — The Tom Petty Concert Experience will take on the new Jagoe Homes Stage, located on the Truist Plaza at RiverPark, as the main act of the evening from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Mark Larsen, the group’s drummer and band manager, said he and the rest of the members are looking forward to performing at FA5 for the first time.

“We’re really excited about being part of this,” he said. “When I (found out) about this particular event, it sounded like something that we would really enjoy doing.

“Obviously, Tom Petty has got a fanbase worldwide, and … Middle America (is) a real big, big area for us to perform in. We always meet so many nice people that come out to those shows.”

Born and raised in Gainesville, Florida, Grammy Award-winner Petty gained an interest in rock music before his teenage years and became a fan of Elvis Presley, whom he met in-person at the age of 10. He was also inspired to be part of a band after seeing the Beatles perform on the “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

In the early 70s, Petty was in bands such as the Sundowners, the Epics and Mudcrutch, with the latter getting signed to the former Shelter Records before the group disbanded after lack of chart success.

Petty then formed Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in 1976, first finding fame in the United Kingdom with the song “Anything That’s Rock ‘n’ Roll” before the band hit its stride with American audiences with songs like “American Girl” and “Breakdown” later in the decade.

From the late 70s to the mid-80s, the Heartbreakers hit mainstream success with its third record “Damn the Torpedoes,” which included the top 20 hit singles “Don’t Do Me Like That” and “Refugee” followed by other successful albums “Hard Promises,” “Long After Dark” and “Southern Accents” in 1981, 1982 and 1985, respectively.

The group was eventually inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

The Heartbreakers’ eighth album, “Into the Great Wide Open,” became a worldwide success, with the record peaking in the top 10 in Austria, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The band’s final album, “Hypnotic Eye” in 2014, became the group’s first and only No. 1 album on the U.S. Billboard 200 albums chart before the band essentially ended in 2017 following the death of Petty that October at the age of 66.

Petty also ventured into a solo career releasing three top-five albums and singles like “I Won’t Back Down,” “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” “You Don’t Know How It Feels” and “Free Fallin’ ” — the latter being his biggest commercial hit.

Additionally, Petty was part of the roots rock supergroup the Traveling Wilburys, which included Beatles’ member George Harrison, Electric Light Orchestra co-founder Jeff Lynne, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and “The Caruso of Rock” Roy Orbison.

Larsen said his group, which was founded in September 2007, intends to highlight Petty’s “legacy and the fact that he connects so many people (with his art).”

“I think the conversation that happens most is (about) his lyrics and (that) he had variety,” he said. “He’s not real focused in a specific genre.”

At first, Larsen said the intention with the group was to help him and his fellow members to get “out of the bar band scene.” Since then, Free Fallin has been able to perform Petty’s music nationally and internationally for nearly two decades, with shows featuring a slew of the singer-songwriter’s hits while the performances look to recreate the authentic experience as if someone was attending a Petty concert.

In particular, the group’s “Broken Hearted Tour” in 2018 saw the band perform 90 shows in 15 states, including an invitation to play at Tom Petty’s Birthday Bash in his hometown and playing for more than 26,000 fans from all over the world. The “Legacy Tour,” which took place the following year, saw the group perform in almost 20 states.

Free Fallin currently consists six members: Larsen; Karl Swartz on lead guitar and vocals; Russ Lund taking on bass and vocals; Dale Peterson performing on the keys; Wade Kirby singing lead vocals and playing guitar; and “utility guy” Ted Byrne, who plays acoustic guitar, mandolin, harmonica and a number of other instruments.

Despite Petty being a renowned name in music, Larsen finds some people that come out to the band’s shows tend to discover more about the artist through them — something he describes as “a good feeling.”

“We have a (marketing) person that travels with us, and she talks to a lot of the audience (and) people we don’t get a chance to chat with,” he said. “I hear all the time stories about people who come to see the band that weren’t big Tom Petty fans that leave the show being more of a Tom Petty fan from when they came in.”

Larsen said the crowd can expect to hear “all the big hits,” which include sing-a-longs, among other material in Petty’s sizable discography.

“… For the people that are a little bit (of) bigger fans, (they) like the fact that we do some kind of B-side stuff,” he said. “We sneak a couple (of those) in ….”

Additional artists and groups slated to perform include the Evansville-based post pop-rock and Americana outfit Cynthia Murray & The End Times performing from 8:30 to 11:30 p.m. on the Romain Subaru Stage on the Kentucky Legend Pier at the Owensboro Convention Center, while the band No Limits will play a set on the Atmos Energy Stage in Smother’s Park from 7-9 p.m.

While familiar components of FA5 will remain intact, such as the street fair, which will see additional food trucks and vendors along Veterans Boulevard and extending towards the convention center, other changes include the organization partnering with Heath and Molly Eric, owners of the concert management company The Eric Group, in securing this year’s musical entertainment on the stages at the convention center and RiverPark.

Additionally, the series, which has typically taken place over 16 weeks annually, has been shortened to 12 this year.

The initial opening day, scheduled for May 17, was canceled following the National Weather Service in Paducah forecasting rain throughout that day and a 50% chance of rain and thunderstorms that evening.

Moving the event inside RiverPark was “unfortunately … not an option,” said Starling Lambert, FA5’s board president, at the time.

“Our experienced local weather forecasters advised us to err on the side of safety for all,” Lambert said in a statement.

The night, which was to include local staple the Velvet Bombers as the headliner, rock band Insulated on the Romain Subaru Stage and the country band Lowland Ramblers on the Overlook Stage, has since been rescheduled to Aug. 9 — extending FA5 one week than originally planned.