To hear [artist id="3055069"]Nicki Minaj[/artist] tell it, her desire for the [artist id="30064"]Black Eyed Peas[/artist]' will.i.am to contribute to her debut album, the forthcoming [article id="1647104"]Pink Friday[/article], was long in the making.

"I've always wanted Will to produce a record for me and I'm a huge fan of the Black Eyed Peas. So I figured if I could get him to add a little bit of magic to my project, it would be dope and futuristic," she told MTV News. "And it wouldn't only be hip-hop but something I could take around the world and get people to dance. I tracked him down and luckily for me, he was interested."

The two collaborated on the synthesized [article id="1648826"]"Check It Out,"[/article] for which they recently shot a clip in Los Angeles. The pair also performed the number on the [article id="1648171"]2010 Video Music Awards pre-show.

When Nicki arrived at the studio to work with the Peas' frontman[/article], one of the first records he played her was "Check It Out." "I was going insane," Nicki recalled. "It was just a feel-good record. The whole room lit up when he played it."

will.i.am explained that the Lil Wayne protégé inspired him during the making of "Check It Out." "I was like, 'I got to take it to the next level now.' 'Cause usually you mess with cats and there is no next level, because they don't inspire the next level," Will said of his collaborator. "So she inspired the next level. So push it. You went 5 miles, then you better go 100."

Nicki, likewise, was inspired by her producer, saying her opinion of the Peas' musician changed after working with him.

"That's when I knew he was next level and not even a human," she said.