Nicki Minaj

Onika Tanya Maraj (born December 8, 1982), known by her stage name Nicki Minaj, is a Trinidadian-born American rapper, singer, songwriter, actress, and television personality. Born in Saint James,Port of Spain and raised in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, she enrolled in performing art schools as a child. After success with three mixtapes released between 2007 and 2009, Minaj signed to Young Money Entertainment. Her debut studio album Pink Friday (2010) peaked atop the U.S. Billboard 200 and was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) the month after its release. Its most successful single "Super Bass" has been certified quadruple-platinum and has sold more than four million copies, becoming one of the best-selling singles in the United States. She became the first female solo artist to have seven singles on the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time. Minaj's second album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (2012) topped charts internationally; it became one of the best-selling albums of that year and sold one million copies worldwide. Its lead single "Starships" became her highest-peaking single on the Billboard Hot 100 and one of the best-selling singles of 2012. She embarked on the Pink Friday Tour and the Pink Friday: Reloaded Tour and reissued the album as Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded – The Re-Up. As of 2013, Minaj has sold over 5 million albums worldwide. Minaj served one season as a judge on the twelfth season of American Idol. She has tentatively announced plans for a third album to be released later that year. Minaj is the first female artist included on MTV's Annual Hottest MC List, with The New York Times suggesting that some consider her "the most influential female rapper of all time." Her rapping is distinctive for its fast flow, use of alter egos and accents, notably British cockney. Her outlandish and colorful costumes, wigs and clothing have given her recognition as a fashion icon. In April 2013, Minaj became the most-charted female rapper in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, with over forty-four appearances. She has endorsed Adidas, MAC Cosmetics, and Pepsi. Revisiting her roots in drama, Minaj has ventured into work as a voice actress in Ice Age: Continental Drift and is making her acting debut in the 2014 film The Other Woman. Her work has earned her seven BET Awards, four American Music Awards, two MTV Music Awards, an EMA, five Billboard Music Awards and Billboard's 2011 Rising Star. --- Onika Tanya Maraj was born to Carol and Robert Maraj on December 8, 1982 in Saint James, a suburb of Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago. She is of mixed Indian and Afro-Trinidadian ancestry and has two siblings. Her mother held numerous jobs including accounting clerk, foreign exchange teller, and gospel singer; her father worked for American Express. Her father drank heavily, took drugs, and once tried to kill her mother by setting the house on fire. She lived in Saint James with her grandmother until the age of five, with occasional visits from her mother; subsequently Minaj moved with her mother to Queens borough in New York City. Although her mother motivated her, Minaj's upbringing lacked discipline, causing her to "seek out and practice self discipline". Minaj attended Elizabeth Blackwell Middle School 210, where she played the clarinet. She then graduated from LaGuardia High School, which specializes in music and the visual and performing arts. Minaj participated in the drama program and initially planned to sing at LaGuardia, but lost her voice on the day of the audition. Minaj described her high school life as being distracted from her academics by “acting and boys”. Minaj wanted to become an actress, and in 2001, she was cast in the Off-Broadway play, "In Case You Forget". After her acting career failed to take off, Minaj worked at Red Lobster in the Bronx at the age of 19 as a waitress. Minaj was fired from Red Lobster because of her discourteousness to customers. She stated she had been fired from "at least fifteen jobs" for similar antics. Other jobs Minaj held were administrative assistant, customer service and an office manager position at an unknown business located on Wall Street. Minaj briefly signed with Brooklyn group Full Force, in which Minaj rapped in a foursome group called "Hoodstars," which consisted of group members Lou$tar (son of "Bowlegged Lou"), Scaff Beezy (Minaj's current hype man) , and 7even Up. In 2004 the group recorded the entrance song for WWE DivaVictoria titled "Don't Mess With," it was featured on the compilation album ThemeAddict: WWE The Music, Vol.6. Minaj left the group, unsatisfied with their lack of success. During this time, Minaj uploaded a few songs on her Myspace profile and sent a few of her songs to people in the music industry she was managed by Debra Antney. Fendi, CEO of the Brooklyn label Dirty Money Entertainment, who also found rapper Gravy, discovered the music and contacted Minaj, signing her to his label. Initially, Minaj adopted the pseudonym "Nicki Maraj", later changing to "Nicki Minaj", stating "My real name is Maraj. Fendi flipped it when he met me because I had such a nasty flow! I eat bitches!" Under Fendi's label, Minaj appeared on the popular street DVD "The Come Up Volume 11" that featured underground rappers from New York. --- Minaj is known for her animated rapping style, particularly her flow. She often combines metaphors, punchlines, and wordplay into her work, which has received comparisons to her mentor, Lil Wayne. The New York Times described Minaj as "a sparkling rapper with a gift for comic accents and unexpected turns of phrase. She's a walking exaggeration, outsize in sound, personality and look. And she's a rapid evolver, discarding old modes as easily as adopting new ones." While many critics describe her technique as bubblegum rap, Minaj explained, "What people don't know is that before I was doing that craziness I was doing me, I was just doing regular sounding rap that anyone could hear and identify with. But once I started doing all that weird shit—im not mad at it because it got everyone’s attention". Widely recognized as a rap artist, Minaj heavily lends herself to electronic music genres, especially electropop. Her debut album Pink Friday marked her exploration of the genre, spawning a string of electro-hits, including "Super Bass". Following the same conventions of combining rap with electronic synths, Minaj's second album pervasively toiled in the electropop genre and generated various songs. At this stage in Minaj's career, she adventured into collaborations with other artist, producing additional electronic hits "The Boys" with "Me & U" singer Cassie and "Beauty and a Beat" with Canadian pop singer Justin Bieber. Her verse in Kanye West's "Monster" was well received by critics, stating she had the best verse in the song. Her alter egos are incorporated in her lyrics through her use of British accents (Roman Zolanski) and being soft-spoken (Harajuku Barbie.) Ice-T says of Minaj's rapping style, "[Minaj] does her thing. She has her own way of doing it. She has an ill vocal delivery. She kind of reminds me of a female Busta Rhymes, like how she throws her voice in different directions." --- Minaj cites Foxy Brown and Jay-Z as major influences, saying, "I really loved [Foxy] as a female rapper. I was really interested in her mind and her aura, I was really, really into Jay-Z. Me and my friends in high school, we were reciting all of the Jay lyrics. His words were our words in our conversations all the time. I never really told Foxy how much she has influenced me and how much she changed my life, and you've gotta tell people that when they're alive to even be able to take the compliment, instead of paying tribute to them when they're no longer here." She has said that Foxy Brown was "the most influential female rapper" and that her album Broken Silence changed her life. --- Minaj is the only female rapper to be featured on Forbes's Hip Hop Cash Kings list, she ranks at No. 8, having earned $US15.5 million from May 2011 to May 2012. In the aftermath of the catastrophic Hurricane Sandy, Minaj donated $15,000 to the Food Bank For New York City and held a turkey drive at her alma mater, P.S. 45 in New York. --- Minaj is a Christian. She stated that after her father went to rehab and started attending church, "he got saved and started changing his life." Critics have noted Minaj's use of various sexual identities within her music, with some implying that she is bisexual. However, she has said that she does not date or have sex with women, but added in an interview with Out magazine, "I don’t date men either." In an interview with Vibe she commented, "I just embrace all people of all lifestyles and I don't tell them they are bad people. But I feel like people always wanna define me and I don’t wanna be defined."