Nicki Minaj

AJ Vogt
Apr 18, 2016
2 min read

Nicki Minaj, born Onika Tanya Maraj, is one of the most successful rappers of all time, compared not only to females, groups and even males and she did not even come onto the hip hop scene until 2007.

She moved to Queens, New York City, in 2005 from Trinidad and Tobago. She had a very tough life growing up. Her dad was quite abusive, he even set fire to the family’s home in a failed attempt to kill Nicki’s mother.

Nicki experienced a quick rise to fame. She started singing backup vocals for local New York City rappers. She was first discovered through her MySpace profile by Fendi of Dirty Money Records. Then, Minaj was introduced to Lil Wayne and he signed her to his label.

Nicki is very known not only for her raps, but also her fashion and personality. In the beginning, she wore very eclectic wildly colorful outfits, but lately she has updated herself to more of a sleeker, natural look. She credits this to her increased confidence, and she is distancing herself from pop and returning to her hip hop roots. Minaj is also known for her personalities. Some include Roman, Harajuku Barbie, which are her two more popular. She created these alter egos, similar to Eminem’s slim shady to make her music more diverse. Each “character” has a different voice, and is very evident when heard in a song.

Nicki Minaj has released three major studio albums. First was Pink Friday. Some of the singles of this record were Your Love, Check It Out, Right Thru Me, and Moment 4 Life. From this album, she was the first female solo artist to have seven songs on the Billboard Hot 100 at one time.

Nicki’s second album was Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded. Siting one of her alter egos in the title of her album. This album was released in 2012 and was more of a pop crossover, which was not received extremely well. Some of the singles off of this album were Starships, Beez in the Trap, Right by My Side, Pound the Alarm and Va Va Voom. She went on to perform at the Grammy’s that year and become the first solo female rapper to perform at the Grammys. She also won quite a few awards with this album including a BET Award, MTV VMA and Billboard Music Award.

Nicki’s third, and most recent album, released in May of 2014 is The Pinkprint. Nicki has now returned back to her hip hop roots. This album was much more personal for Minaj. In her songs she addressed, love, heartbreak, abuse and other topics that touched close to her life. Anaconda, a song on her album, broke the 24 hour VEVO record for most views from Miley Cyrus. At this time, Nicki has won the BET Award for Best Female Hip Hop Artist for 6 consecutive years.

Nicki Minaj is quite a hip hop power house. She is known for her animated rapping style, while still holding a flow. She also combines metaphors, punch lines and word play into her lyrics, which is similar to her mentor, Lil Wayne. Interestingly, Minaj often autographs her fans breasts in her movement to empower women.

Check out her first studio album below.