Nicki Minaj pushes back release of new album 'Queen', denies competing with Ariana Grande

Rapper was forced to deny she was challenging her close friend and collaborator after fans noticed the reschedule meant two artists' albums will now drop on the same day

Ariana Grande performs onstage with Nicki Minaj at the 2016 American Music Awards (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Nicki Minaj has pushed the release of her new album Queen back by a week, meaning the record will now be released on 17 August.

It was originally set to drop on 15 June, but was pushed back by two months as the MC wanted more time to work on it.

The reason for the second rescheduled launch date is reportedly so Minaj can acquire permission from Tracy Chapman to include a sample of one of her songs on the record. In a now-deleted tweet posted on 31 July she asked the musician to "please hit me".

Minaj was forced to shut down rumours that she was trying to compete with her friend and frequent collaborator Ariana Grande, who is set to release her own record Sweetener on 17 August.

Grande responded to the reports herself after a fan alerted her to them, commenting: "Jesus is this what's going on today? Imma jus stop logging in at all lmfao. That's my f***ing sister. She's clearing a sample. Buy and stream Queen and Sweetener August 17 bye. These numbers don't mean as much to the artists as they do to y'all. Jus want y'all to listen to the project."

Responding to another fan she tweeted: "Me n Nicki laughed at dat [sic]."

Minaj then quoted Grande's tweet and added: "I love this woman. Can't wait for the fans to benefit from all the hard work on both ends. We love your passion. You guys will be VERY happy. Trust. That's all I'll say."