TV

Lil Wayne says he told The Masked Singer to put Nicki Minaj on, but the show convinced him instead

The rapper was revealed to be under the Robot mask in the season 3 premiere.

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Published on March 11, 2020 07:05PM EDT

Lil Wayne's reveal as Robot on The Masked Singer's season 3 premiere may have been the show's biggest shocker to date, but the rapper recently revealed he didn't even intend to go on the show, originally.

Wayne, who was eliminated after singing Lenny Kravitz's "Are You Gonna Go My Way," told MTV that he wanted Nicki Minaj to go on the Fox singing competition.

"I've been watching since the first episode, because the first episode, when it came on I knew it was T-Pain," Lil Wayne said on Fresh Out. "Because of that I told [Young Money President Mack Maine] to call them. I told him, 'Let 'em know I'm a huge fan' and I wanted to get Nicki on there. I was like, 'Tell 'em I would love to get Nicki on there.' And it came back like, 'Man they want you on there.'"

Wayne was surprised, and recalled telling his collaborator to "ask them again."

But as we saw, Lil Tunechi did end up on the Masked Singer stage, and though many fans on social media immediately clocked his distinct voice, the panelists guessed every celebrity under the sun — like Johnny Knoxville and Shaun White — except Wayne.

The artist, who just released his 13th album Funeral, helped land the reality show 23.7 million viewers on Feb. 2 (it also didn't hurt that the premiere aired right after the Super Bowl).

Wayne also told MTV that Minaj had no idea her hip-hop mentor and frequent collaborator even recommended her for the job. And he said it was probably for the best.

"This was gonna be a surprise to her," he said. "She probably would have told me, 'No, I ain't doing this.' So we don't know what she would've felt about that."

Minaj, known for her rapping prowess, also possesses a great singing voice. You can hear it in tracks like "Grand Piano" off 2014's The Pinkprint or Pink Friday's "Save Me" from 2010.

Knowing her vocal capabilities, she would likely make it far on The Masked Singer. And who knows — if a star of Wayne or Tony Hawk's caliber can compete on the Fox show, why can't Minaj do it too? We can only dream she'll be under a mask on the all-new episode Wednesday's night.

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