"Last Time I Saw You" is a dreamy, melancholic track where Nicki Minaj reflects on a past relationship with someone who is no longer part of her life. She yearns for the chance to rewrite their history, hinting at the enduring love she still holds for them. Many Barbz speculated the song may be an ode to Minaj's late father, Robert Minaj, tragically killed in a hit-and-run accident in February 2021.
"Last Time I Saw You" finds Minaj navigating the emotions of yearning and remorse that accompany the loss of someone beloved.
I wish I'da hugged you tighter the last time that I saw you
I wish I didn't waste precious time the night when I called you
The track resonates with a sense of optimism amid the backdrop of loss, capturing the essence of hope that can emerge from such heartache. "Even tho reliving the memories did feel 'sad,' after I wrote, recorded, [and] lived [with] it, it actually made me pay more attention to the people I still DO have, and how important it is to cherish them and have fun NOW in the moment," Minaj shared on Twitter. "Telling them how much you adore them, etc. made me so happy."
Minaj has touched on the loss of someone beloved before. In her 2014 track "
All Things Go" she openly bared her soul, sharing her personal anguish following the death of her cousin, Nicholas Telemaque, who was fatally shot in a hit-and-run accident in July 2011.
Minaj released "Last Time I Saw You" via Young Money as a single from her fifth album, Pink Friday 2, on September 1, 2023. The song showcases a more vulnerable side of Minaj compared to her usual braggadocio output. With much of the track sung rather than rapped, Minaj's vocals take center stage, conveying the contemplative atmosphere and emotional depth of the song.
"I just wanted the next song that I put out to represent my growth," she told Apple Music's Zane Lowe. "Not just as an artist, but as a human being. I've experienced so many things that I hadn't experienced five years ago, and that's just the truth."
Minaj wrote the song with its producers, Hendrix Smoke, ATL Jacob, TooDope, Bak and Frankie Bash.
When the producers played Minaj the beat, the first thing she did was pen the chorus. "When I wrote the hook, to me, it felt it was... The vibe of it was really talking about a loss, a real loss you know," she told Apple Music's Zane Lowe. "But to not make the song feel only directed at one kind of loss. When I wrote the singing verse, I tried to expand it and think even about relationships. And then by the time I got to the rap, it was like I had included all relationships that I had lost before, because I mentioned even best friends and stuff like that."
There was originally a different outro, but when Joshua Berkman, the head of A&R at Cash Money Records, and Wendy Goldstein, the vice president of Republic Records, dropped in to listen to the track, they weren't vibing with it. Instead, they wanted a rerun of the hook. Nicki Minaj was feeling the original ending, but she leaned over to her engineer, "Big Juice" Delaineme, and told him to prep - she was going back in the booth.
"And I said, 'You know what? Let me just freestyle and see what comes," she said. "Because I can't just put a generic, the same exact hook and just go, 'Bye-bye.'"
So, Minaj went in the booth.
"Wendy and Josh were sitting right there. Juice was here as well," she said. "And I just said it, but I wanted to say it in kind of a different way, and then out came in the third to last line, 'I knew the moment that I'd always adore you,' which is a line that I'm not saying on the hook, but it felt so right coming at the end. Just knowing everybody in the world will be able to relate to this is what makes me happy."
"Last Time I Saw You" is a song about guilt. "I don't think people make a lot of music about the experience of guilt,"
Minaj reflected to Vogue. "But if you talk to any human being on earth about it, they would know exactly what you mean. That 'I wish I had' feeling. Once I wrote the hook, I started to think of people that I love and see every day and still take for granted. You know what I'm saying? So I hope the song does a good thing."
