Nicki Minaj Tells She Is Now "Single"

Nicki Minajappeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Thursday, where host Ellen DeGeneresasked about the "engagement ring" she's been wearing as of late. "Are you really going to zoom in on my ashy hands? Come on, now. You have to prep women for that. You can't just zoom in on people's fingers and hands," Minaj said before discussing Meek Mill. "First of all, that's not an engagement ring. Right? I have two rings from this boy that likes me. And he gave me..." She was unable to finish her sentence, as a photo of her ring appeared on the screen behind her. "Oh my God! Stop!" she said. DeGeneres joked, "That boy has money. Whatever boy that is."

"That's not my engagement ring, though," the "Night Is Still Young" Rapper clarified. "He said that that's my second ring and that if I get a third ring that that would be the engagement ring."

DeGeneres asked Minaj if she's "ready to get engaged," to which she answered, "You know, I don't know. We're still figuring each other out. And in fact, I don't even want to say that I'm in a relationship anymore, because I think when people hear that, they go to like the mean place and try to like—not you, though. You're super. I love you to death." DeGeneres prodded her to "talk about it in a kind place," but the rapper wouldn't budge. "I would rather not. You know, I used to be secretive. You guys asked me about that before on my pre-interview," Minaj said. "I used to say, 'I'm not in a relationship,' even though I was in a 12-year relationship [with Safaree Samuels]...Now I feel like just going back to that and saying, 'You know what? I'm single."

As an example, Minaj said she decided not to share a picture of her Valentine's Day gift on Instagram to keep people out of their business. "People said, 'They're not together.' We were getting anonymous messages saying, 'Yeah, she wasn't with him and she was crying all day.' Just putting up all these things. Meanwhile, we were really in bed all day on Valentine's Day. Like, seriously! We were in bed all day and then I got up and opened these three amazing gifts, and then I went back to bed. Then I read this story that we weren't together on Valentine's Day and it just made me realize that no matter how great your life is, you can't even impress people. You just have to do you and make yourself happy and forget about trying to get everyone's approval. It's better just to keep those things sacred. So, now, I don't really care to say 'I'm in a relationship' or 'I'm engaged' or whatever. There's a boy that likes me. That's all." DeGeneres reminded her that the "boy" in question "spent a lot of money on you hoping you would say you were in a relationship. I mean, he's not happy about you saying you're single."

Minaj, who never mentioned her man by name, ended with this: "He and I are just two souls right now passing through the universe, and I don't know what's going to happen. I just have learned over the years to just let things be and come and go as they are going to come and go."