Nicki Minaj Celebrates Silver Cat’s 1994 Song ‘Fowl Affair’

Nicki Minaj took time out to celebrate veteran Dancehall artist Silver Cat’s Fowl Affair, even while promoting her upcoming album Pink Friday 2.

On Wednesday, the Megatron artist shared two Instagram posts to her over 200 million followers, one with the first line of the lyrics to Silver Cat’s 1994 single. “Mi have 2 fowl a mi yard; a cock and a hen,” she posted, while, on the other, she shared the November 17 release date of her upcoming album.

Fowl Affair was the title track from Silver Cat’s 1995 album titled In A Fowl Affair.  It was his second song to be recorded on Patrick Roberts’ Cordouroy riddim, after the first, Dead In Ya, was banned for its violent lyrics in 1994.

The Cordouroy riddim had also featured Beenie Man’s World Dance and Blessed.

Fowl Affair, which proved to be Silver Cat’s breakthrough hit, was a hilarious double-entendre song that spoke about a mischievous rooster who was giving him problems with his female neighbors, while at the same time had the interpretation of being the Clarendon native’s out-of-control male body parts, being promiscuous, contracting Syphilis and being given penicillin as a result, but still reverting to womanizing ways following treatment.

Silver Cat followed up with All These Girls Are Mine, Violence And Crime, Nah Go Bow (Get Smart), Lose Him Gal, Get Too Bright, and Use Your Imagination with Cocoa Tea, Thriller U, and Cutty Ranks.

On Friday at Reggae Sumfest 2023, he was part of a segment of “90s Badness” performers, who paid tribute to the late Boom Dandimite.

Nicki Minaj’s Upcoming Album and Her History With Jamaican Music

Minaj had first announced that she was ready to deliver the sequel to her celebrated debut album, Pink Friday, on June 29, and said that the long-awaited fifth album would be released a little later than initially expected.

“Dear Barbz, I’ve been trying to find the right time to tell you this for a few days. Due to some really exciting news that I’ll share with you guys @ a later time, I’ve shifted the album date just a tad bit. Trust me, it’ll be WELL WORTH THE WAIT…but since I AM shifting the date just a tad, I’d like to give you guys a tiny SIP of some more album tea so that I don’t have to get cussed out 🙁 so…here it goes: 🎀 MY NEW ALBUM WILL BE RELEASED ON 11.17.23-🎀 and she shall be called: Pink Friday 2 🎀,” she had noted on Instagram.

She had also expressed her gratitude to her fans and noted that she had plans for a 2024 tour.

“🥹 I love you guys so much. I am so grateful for the years of support & love you guys have given me. At times maybe I didn’t even deserve all that you have poured into me. Nonetheless, you. will. love. this. album. I will give tour deets closer to that time, but obviously the tour will start around the first quarter of 2024. I’ll also share the REAL album cover at a later date,” she had added.

Prior to that revelation, the Trinidadian had announced that the album, her first album in five years, would be released on October 20.

Her 2010 Pink Friday album, which contained tracks such as Super Bass, Moment for Life, Your Love and Right Thru Me, had peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and had sold, upon its debut, 375,000 copies in its opening week.

Minaj has never been shy about the influence Dancehall music from the 1980s and 1990s and its performers, have had on her fruitful career. 

On her platinum-selling album Queen, she had immortalized Jamaica’s most iconic Dancehall artists on the track Inspiration, the outro for the production.

On that track, she had paid homage to the legends in Dancehall who inspired her work, among them her female counterparts Lady Saw, Patra, Tanya Stephens and Spice and Beenie Man, Bounty Killer, Buju Banton, Sizzla and Capleton on the male side as well as 1980s rude boys Ninja Man and Supoer Cat.

She had also venerated Bob Marley, and lauded Vybz Kartel and Mavado, who got their musical breaks and became superstars in the 2000s, as well as her Trinidadian compatriots Destra Garcia and Machel Montano, Bunji Garlin, Fay-Ann Lyons.

Minaj’s Dancehall collaborations include the Hold Yuh (Remix) with Gyptian, the Touch Down (Remix) with Vybz Kartel and Stylo G, Give It All To Me with Mavado, Gun Shot with Beenie Man off her Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded album, the Crocodile Teeth (remix) with Skillibeng, and Likke Miss with Skeng.

Megatron, her Platinum-selling 2019 single, had sampled Danny Browne’s Filthy riddim, which had featured songs such as Mr. Vegas’ Heads High, Beenie Man’s Let Him Go, and Lady G’s Breeze Off.

A recent song Red Ruby Da Sleeze, released on March 3, had sampled Lumidee version of Steven ‘Lenky’ Marsden‘s two-decade-old Diwali riddim.