Nicki Minaj has been speaking about her hopes for marriage and children in the future, and is confident that her rapper boyfriend Meek Mill will propose to her – but not just yet.

The 33 year old R&B star is confident that he’s the one, but told Nylon magazine in a new interview for next month’s cover issue that he’s not yet popped her the question. This is despite Minaj herself triggering the engagement rumours over the last year by being repeatedly photographed wearing eye-catching diamond rings on her wedding finger.

Nicki Minaj Meek MillNicki Minaj and Meek Mill pictured at the 2015 BET Awards

“I’m not engaged yet,” she insisted. “He said that my third ring would be my engagement ring. But sometimes he calls me his fiancée, and I’m always trying to stop him, like, ‘Nope! I ain’t got that third ring yet!’ We’re just taking it one step at a time. And, you know, if that happens, if I get married, then I’ll have a child, and that’ll be fun, because I can’t wait to hold my baby.”

“When he and I were just friends, he would always say, ‘You remind me of my mother, and I like that because you’re like a dude. You’re tough like a guy and you talk like a dude.’ So I always got the sense that me being tough and bossy was a turn-on for him. And it’s important for me to keep my voice. Being in a relationship shouldn’t mean that you lose your voice. Being in a relationship should mean that you’ve met a secure-enough man to allow you, in a sense, to remain a queen.”

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Meek Mill, 28, told The Fader at the end of last year that they were taking their time and weren’t going to rush into getting married. “It ain't really time to get married yet. We're still learning each other, feeling each other out.”

Nicki MinajNicki Minaj is currently working on her fourth album

Meanwhile, Minaj is still working on her fourth album and intends to take her time with it, following the double-platinum success of The Pinkprint, released at the back end of 2014.

“I needed time to hear myself think again,” she says, “because where I left off with The Pinkprint was a little bit emotionally unstable. I wanted to take a moment to just live my life, enjoy my life, have fun, go out. I think that’s very important before you start writing again. It’s a spiritual experience for the people who are hearing the music, so I’m trying to be very careful of what mental space I’m in while I’m creating it. Now, I want my happiness to be reflected in the new stuff.”

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