Nicki Minaj
Nicki Minaj
Onika Tanya Maraj, known professionally as Nicki Minaj, is a Trinidadian-born American rapper, singer and songwriter. Born in Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago and raised in South Jamaica, Queens, New York, Minaj earned public attention after releasing three mixtapes between 2007–09. She has been signed to Young Money Entertainment since 2009...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionRapper
Date of Birth8 December 1982
CitySaint James, Trinidad And Tobago
CountryUnited States of America
I grew up in the south of Italy, next to the sea, which was a great place to grow up. The type of life we lived there was very relaxing. Just very fun, open-minded people. It was all very sociable and low-key.
& I'm all up all up all up in the bank with the funny face
I'm in my dressing room about to play to a sold-out crowd at the O2 arena in Ireland. Name a female rapper who's ever done that and I will give you $100,000.
I'mma just do me, when it feel right.
See you told me I would lose but I won. I might cop a million Jimmy Choos just for fun.
When I get up in the morning and put on a pink or a green wig, I see myself as a piece of animation. It lets me be the person I want to be, a person who's not embarrassed to have fun.
I don’t find it fun watching someone trying to be sexy. It’s whack. I’m trying to just show my true personality, and I think that means more than anything else. I think when personality is at the forefront, its not about male or female, its just about, who is this weird character?
I just kinda do what I feel. I never knew what lane I would fill, [or that] I would fill a lane at all. I didn't even really contemplate that far down the road. I just started having fun, and a lot of that came from me seeing Wayne dare to be different, and I started feeling like I can be a multifaceted rapper. I don't have to be a one-dimensional female rapper. Once I put that in perspective, it was like everything just got easier for me, because I no longer wanted to fit in anybody's box... I just wanted to be Nicki.
Who doesn't love Enya? Whenever I'm in a trying time, she is the calm in the middle of the storm. If I put her on, I'll be in this crazy peaceful state. I love her style. And her harmonies are freaking genius.
Female rappers get it the hardest. You have to be a girl, yet you have to be just as hard as the guys. I think some female rappers get scared out of the business before they can make it.
If people are sitting in the barbershop talking about my butt, it's conversational. That's what people are gonna do.
Like to me, I did the 'Harajuku' stuff. I did the crazy stuff. And now I kind of want to tone that back, and it's not toning my personality back, it's just showing like I don't only have to do that.
I feel like my entire career and life, I've been judged by people who did not really know me. I definitely think that they probably were right to assume what they had assumed about me, because there was such little to go on out there.
I've constantly tried new things, even as a child, and have always been obsessed with pink. Now I'm just a little more ladylike and fearless. You should never feel afraid to become a piece of art. It's exhilarating.