Rap superstar Nicki Minaj has admitted that she was channelling the Olympic spirit and mindset when she sat down to write 'Masquerade'.

The sensation revealed that she was approached by sports brand Adidas for a campaign and the representative suggested an Olympic theme so she started thinking like "a champion" to come up with appropriate lyrics:

"'Masquerade', to me, feels like the Olympics. When Adidas came to me, they mentioned the Olympics. They mentioned maybe having a performance at the Olympics, and I just put my brain into the mind frame of, 'What does a champion feel like? What is the inner conversation of a champion?'"

"I just started by saying 'feel the beat of the drum' and talking about being number one; all those things that go through your brain sometimes when you're feeling like you're at the crossroads between continuing and giving up."

The Adidas commercial, in which the track features, debuted recently and Minaj added that she wanted the message to be about "hope":

"The song is about feeling inspired to win and to never give up and I feel like the Adidas campaign, that's what it's really about: giving people hope and, you know, that's what I wanted to convey in the song."

Watch the promotional advertisement below: