Trinidad and Tobago wouldn’t have been the country we would expect to have the queen of hip-hop emerge from and dominate the rap game for a decade with her music. She has raps that can stand toe-to-toe with some of the greats, and simultaneously receive praise for having some of the best verses on records. In addition, she has surpassed records made on the Billboard charts.
Who are we talking about?
Nicki Minaj, Trinidadian-American rapper, singer, songwriter and actress.
- Personal Life
Born Onika Tanya Maraj (now Maraj-Petty), Nicki Minaj’s journey in the arts was first in acting – a path she often mentions that she wanted to pursue as her lifelong and full time career. Music was a part of her however, thanks to the influences from home – her father being a gospel singer as well as her mother – and she eventually went down that path in the late 2000s putting out mixtapes which would later give her a name in the rap music scene [Playtime Is Over (2007), Sucka Free (2008) and Beam Me Up Scotty (2009)].
But before she would become the 7-time BET Female Hip-Hop Artist of the year winner (in a row), Nicki had enrolled in the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, with which she intended to pursue a career in acting, focusing on visual and performing arts. After her graduation she got to perform in an Off-Broadway play, In Case You Forget in the year 2001.
Due to certain constraints and circumstances, Nicki had to put her acting on hold and find a job as a waitress at Red Lobster in New York, but was fired because she had a bad attitude towards customers. She later went on to work as a customer service representative for a phone company, and later as office management on Wall Street, alongside 15 other jobs she had to do while getting herself together. Upon being inspired by activities going on around her, she would be writing raps on sheets of paper and carrying them around her in her pockets and other spaces she could find which she would look on to to rehearse later.
- Music Career
Nicki Minaj after being independent off her former musical group HoodStars and releasing music on her Myspace profile finally released her first solo mixtape “Playtime Is Over” in 2007, her second mixtape “Sucka Free” in 2008 and her third mixtape “Beam Me Up Scotty” in 2009 which gave her recognition on BET and MTV, as well as getting her to chart on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart. The third mixtape is what led to her discovery by Young Money Entertainment’s boss and rapper Lil’ Wayne to which she got signed on and began her music career extensively. She would go to appear as guest feature in Billboard Hot 100 songs like “Knockout” and “Up Out My Face” by Lil Wayne and Mariah Carey respectively, and later on “BedRock” and “Roger That” off the Young Money compilation album “We Are Young Money”, which also charted on the U.S Billboard Hot 100 charts.
She then geared up to present to the world her first studio album in the year 2010 called “Pink Friday”, (which would be her breakthrough album), following the singles “Your Love” peaking at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100, and number 1 on the Billboard Rap Songs charts, alongside the follow-up songs “Right Thru Me” and “Check It Out”. “Pink Friday” became the album that gave her the chance to perform at the Yankee Stadium making her the first female rapper to do so. She released the album in November, 2010, and sold 375,000 copies in the first week making her the first rapper with a high sales week and the second female rapper to have high sales of an album since Lauryn Hill’s “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” in 1998.
In the same year, she eceived high praises from top lyricists, media houses and other entertainment spaces on her verse on the Kanye West song “Monster” (off the album “My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy”), with media outlets hailing this verse to be one that shows her brilliance and skill perfectly.
“Roman Reloaded and The Re-Up”
The next album “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded” was scheduled to be released in April 2012, with the singles “Starships”, “Beez In The Trap” and “Right By My Side” preceding the release and making this her crossover into pop music. She made first week sales of 253,000 units and later went platinum in June 2012, as she also got to perform at the Grammy Awards making her the first female solo artist to do so, premiering her song “Roman Holiday” at the ceremony. In the same year, she released the expanded version of the album in November, as “The Re-Up”, after winning awards for Best Female Video (for the song “Starships”) and Best Hip-Hop at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards.
“The Pinkprint and other projects”
The Pinkprint would now become the continuation to her “The Re-Up”, and her third studio album, which she mentioned will be her ‘placing more focus on her hip-hop roots’, with her lead single “Pills N Potions” released in August, 2014, making it her highest charting single on the Billboard Hot 100 to this day. The follow-up single “Anaconda” set a Vevo record of 19.6 million views under 24 hours, surpassing that of Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” video. She released the album in December, 2014 with 244,000 units sold and received three Grammy nominations including her second nomination for Best Rap Album.
Other projects pursued and executed were her role in the live action movie “The Other Woman” starring alongside Cameron Diaz. She also starred in the comedy movie and the third installment of the “Barbershop” movies “The Next Cut” (2016) alongside rappers Ice Cube, Common, Eve and Michael Rainey Jr, JB Smoove, Cedric the Entertainer amongst others. She had a documentary run for a short while and postponed it due to personal reasons with the title “Nicki Minaj: My Truth” on the network E!.
Queen, Beam Me Up Scotty re-release, fifth album and other ventures
Her fourth studio album “Queen” was announced at the 2018 MetGala on the red carpet, stating that it was scheduled for release in June, 2018 but encountered some delays and was instead released in August, 2018 . She made a first week sale of about 185,000 units and later went platinum in January 2019, moving over 1 million units overall. Lead singles from this album were “Chun Li”, “Bed” with Ariana Grande and “Barbie Tingz” (which was cut off from the album but can be found on the Target version).
Going away for a long hiatus, Nicki comes back with a re-release of her 2009 mixtape Beam Me Up Scotty. Here she’s back with new songs such as “Seeing Green” with Lil Wayne and Drake, and “Fractions”, with both songs receiving high praise from outlets such HipHopDX, Rolling Stone and NPR, and the mixtape climbing up the charts to number 2 on the Billboard 200 as the highest female debut mixtape charting.
She has made mention of a new album to be released in the summer of 2022, which will make this her fifth studio album as she has had the songs “Do We Have A Problem” and “Bussin’” precede its release.
You may think that it has been all about the music but no, Nicki does do well to get into other ventures, such as her line of fragrances which she began doing with her album releases, launched in the year 2012 – from “Pink Friday” (receiving nominations for the FiFi awards for Fragrance of the Year, Best Media Campaign and Best Packaging) all the way to “Minajesty” “Onika” “Trini Girl” and her “Queen” in support of her fourth studio album. There have also been collaborations with companies including MAC Cosmetics, Casio for Casio TRYX, Nokia for the Nokia Lumia 900, Mattel for her Barbie look alike dolls and advertisements for Pepsi, Adidas, Viva Glam amongst others.
As of February 2022 she is worth $100 million, making her the richest female rap artist in the hip-hop industry. She has been a force to be reckoned with and still is, and she’s gone down in history as one of the best female artists, if not, the best of all time. She has certainly been regarded among the greats, considering her lyricism and commercial success.
