Nicki Minaj

Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( NIK-ee min-AHZH), is a Trinidadian rapper, singer, and songwriter. Dubbed the "Queen of Rap" and one of the most influential rappers of all time, she is noted for her dynamic rap flow, witty lyrics, musical versatility, and alter egos, and is credited as a driving force in the mainstream resurgence of female rap since the 2010s. Raised in New York City, Minaj began rapping professionally in the early 2000s and gained recognition with her three mixtapes between 2007 and 2009.

Minaj's debut studio album, Pink Friday (2010), opened with the largest female rap album sales week of the 21st century, topped the US Billboard 200, and spawned the single "Super Bass". She explored dance-pop on her second US number-one album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (2012), which produced the top-five single, "Starships". She returned to her hip-hop roots with The Pinkprint (2014) and Queen (2018), which yielded the singles "Anaconda" and "Chun-Li". Minaj achieved her first Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles with the 2020 duets "Say So" and "Trollz"; the former was the first female rap collaboration to top the chart. Her fifth album, Pink Friday 2 (2023), made her the female rapper with the most US number-one albums (three) and spawned her first solo US number-one single, "Super Freaky Girl". Its concert tour became the highest-grossing by a female rapper.

Minaj is one of the world's best-selling music artists and the best-selling female rapper, with over 100 million records sold. She has over 54 million certified singles sold in the US, three diamond-certified singles, and in 2024 became the first female rapper with multiple diamond-certified solo songs (two) by the RIAA. In 2023, Billboard and Vibe ranked Minaj as the greatest female rapper of all time. Her various accolades include a Brit Award, five Billboard Music Awards, nine American Music Awards, eight MTV Video Music Awards (including the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award), eleven BET Awards, a Soul Train Music Award, and three Guinness World Records. Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2016, and she was honored with the Billboard Women in Music Game Changer Award in 2019.

Minaj founded the record label imprint Heavy On It in 2023. Outside of music, her other endeavors include a fragrance line, a press on nails line, a Loci sneakers collection, and the radio show Queen Radio (2018–2023). She has also voice acted in the animated films Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) and The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019), and acted in the comedy films The Other Woman (2014) and Barbershop: The Next Cut (2016). On television, she served as a judge on the twelfth season of American Idol (2013). Her outspoken views have received significant media attention.

Early life

Onika Tanya Maraj was born on December 8, 1982, in the Saint James district of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Her father was Robert Maraj (1956–2021), a financial executive and part-time gospel singer of Dougla (Afro-Trinidadian mother and Indo-Trinidadian father) descent. Her mother, Carol, is also a gospel singer with Afro-Trinidadian ancestry. Her mother worked in payroll and accounting departments during Minaj's youth. Her father was an alcoholic and crack cocaine addict whom Minaj described as violent to her mother and committed arson on their house in December 1987. Minaj has three siblings, including an older brother, a younger brother, and a younger half-sister.

As a child, Minaj lived with her grandmother in Saint James in a household with 11 cousins. Her mother worked many jobs in Saint James before getting her green card at the age of 24. She then moved to the Bronx in New York to attend Monroe College, leaving Minaj in Trinidad with her grandmother. When Minaj was five, Carol brought her to live with her and her father in South Jamaica, Queens. Minaj said she arrived in the U.S as an illegal immigrant, after which she gained legal resident status. She recalled, "I don't think I had a lot of discipline in my household. My mom motivated me, but it wasn't a strict household. I kind of wanted a strict household."

Minaj successfully auditioned for admission to Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, which focuses on visual and performing arts. A week after graduation, she was cast in the Off-Broadway play In Case You Forget. In her youth, Minaj worked many jobs, including as a waitress at a Red Lobster in the Bronx, customer service representative, and office management on Wall Street, and was fired for discourtesy to customers.

Career

2002–2009: Career beginnings and mixtapes

From 2002 to 2004, Minaj rapped in a New York hip hop group called Hoodstars, which included rappers Lou$tar and 7even Up and hype man Safaree Samuels. The son of Bowlegged Lou from Full Force, Lou$tar recruited Minaj when he and his father heard her work. Bowlegged Lou liked Minaj's rapping, and said that back then she was already doing "the crazy voices" in her vocal performances. In 2004, the group recorded the entrance song for WWE Diva Victoria, "Don't Mess With", which was featured on the compilation album ThemeAddict: WWE The Music, Vol.6. Full Force tried to get Hoodstars a record deal but were unsuccessful. They then worked with Minaj as a solo artist, meeting with some record companies, including Warner Brothers, who expressed interest in signing Minaj out of the group but required a ghostwriter for a deal. Minaj refused, adamant that she will always write her songs. Brian George from Full Force said that Minaj was impressive in her ambition, describing her as "broke and hungry" while determined to be in control of her craft.

Minaj continued to work independently and uploaded her songs on her Myspace profile, sending several of them to people in the music industry. In 2006, Fendi, who owned the Brooklyn production company Dirty Money Entertainment, reached out to Minaj on Myspace, and signed her to Dirty Money under a 180-day contract. Originally using the stage name Nicki Maraj, she eventually changed it to Nicki Minaj after Fendi switched her last name when he met her due to her having a "nasty flow". Minaj wrote a number of songs, including "Itty Bitty Piggy" and "I Get Crazy", and booked shows in New York and New Jersey. She released her first mixtape, Playtime Is Over, on July 5, 2007. She filmed a music video for the track "Click Clack", which was featured on the underground rap DVD The Come Up Vol. 11. Her rap on the DVD caught the attention of rapper Lil Wayne, who got in contact with Fendi to set up a call with Minaj and asked her to join his crew he was assembling for his new imprint called Young Money. Minaj collaborated with Wayne, who featured on her next mixtapes, but she did not sign a contract with Young Money then. She continued working on her songs, communicating with fans on social media, and booking shows.

Minaj released her second mixtape, Sucka Free, on April 12, 2008, and her third, Beam Me Up Scotty, on April 18, 2009; it received favorable coverage. The Beam Me Up Scotty track "I Get Crazy", reached number 20 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Rap Songs chart and number 37 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. In the summer of 2009, Minaj performed on a tour headlined by Wayne featuring artists from Young Money, among others. At the time she was managed by Debra Antney. Producer Irv Gotti asked Minaj to sign to his label Murder Inc. Records and she countered with an offer for him to manage her, which he declined. Minaj's mixtapes, freestyles, and features on other artists' songs garnered significant industry and public interest. While she continued playing shows, working on music, and collaborating with other artists, there was a bidding war among record labels to sign her. In late August, Minaj signed a recording contract with Young Money, with her deal entailing her owning her 360 rights, including her merchandising, sponsorships, endorsements, touring and publishing. In a 2011 interview, Minaj said that before she met Lil Wayne, "the person that was spearheading my career was the one person who always told me, 'Don't be too playful, don't be too kooky and weird... no one's gonna feel that, nobody wants to hear that.' So I stifled a lot of that early on, and then once that we parted ways, I was like, 'Guess what, I'm gonna just be me.'" In October 2009, she performed a freestyle at the 2009 BET Hip Hop Awards cypher. The following month, she appeared with Gucci Mane and Trina on the remix of "5 Star Bitch" by Yo Gotti.