Nicki Minaj:
Nicki Minaj is a rapper, singer, songwriter, television personality, and actress who was born in Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago, on December 8, 1982. She is well-known for both her high-energy, provocative tunes and her fast-paced rap technique. Nicki, who frequently dons vibrant wigs and provocative attire, presents her music with a vivid, larger-than-life personality.
Nicki Minaj’s family relocated to Queens, New York, from Trinidad and Tobago when she was around five years old. Living under the shadow of a violent, drug-addicted father affected her early years. She spent a lot of time making up fantasy worlds for herself as a way to escape the commotion around her. She later took on the name Nicki Minaj as a result of her behavior.
Her other artistic endeavors included studying acting at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City and penning her first rap song at the age of twelve.
Nicki Minaj began her career in New York City as a backup vocalist for up-and-coming local rappers. A local record label became interested in her after she posted videos of her work to her Myspace page. Rapper Lil Wayne eventually noticed her, and the two worked together on a number of mixtapes. Playtime Is Over, their first joint project, was published in 2007.
Nicki Minaj’s fame grew as additional mixtapes were released, and the following year she took home the Underground Music Awards’ Female Artist of the Year title. She signed with Wayne’s label, Young Money Entertainment, in 2009. Wayne, Minaj, and Drake would later release a number of successful songs under the label. In 2010, she was nominated for her first Grammy Award for the song “My Chick Bad,” which she co-wrote with Ludacris.
Pink Friday (2010), her debut album with Young Money, debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 list. Minaj thoroughly embraced the shock value of her work, and the album had sexually explicit tracks, which would become typical in her releases. Her passion for the color pink, which she eventually utilized to name items like Pink Friday perfume and Pink Pill speakers, was also reflected in the title. Nicki Minaj received three additional Grammy nominations for Pink Friday, including Best Rap Album.
Her second album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, which had a strong pop influence and featured the popular single “Starships,” was released in 2012. Minaj was appointed a judge on the reality TV singing competition American Idol the following year. Controversy was caused by her direct, vocal judging style and many arguments with fellow judge Mariah Carey. Minaj quit the show after just one season. She had a record 44 appearances on the Billboard Hot 100 list in 2013, which at the time was the most for a female rapper.
2014 saw the release of Minaj’s third studio album, The Pinkprint. It included “Anaconda,” a return to her previous rap style, along with a number of tracks with a breakup theme. She collaborated with musicians like Eminem and The Weeknd on her 2018 album Queen. Minaj collaborated with Doja Cat on “Say So” and 6ix9ine on “Trollz,” two songs that peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2020.
She released “Super Freaky Girl,” a lighthearted and audacious remake of Rick James’s 1981 smash song “Super Freak,” two years later. It was the first song by a solo female rapper to reach the top of the Hot 100 since 1998. Minaj won her fifth MTV Video Music Award for Best Hip-Hop Video for the song’s music video, which featured her as a pink-haired suburban femme fatale.
Minaj collaborated with rapper Ice Spice and sampled the Danish band Aqua’s 1997 dance smash “Barbie Girl” for the song “Barbie World” on the soundtrack of the popular movie Barbie in 2023. Two Grammy nominations were given to the song. Pink Friday 2, Minaj’s follow-up to her 2010 studio album, was released in the same year.
Minaj has occasionally performed as an actress as well. The Other Woman (2014) and Barbershop: The Next Cut (2016) are two of her movies. Her voice can be heard in animated movies including The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019) and Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012).