Nicki Minaj
| Nicki Minaj | |
|---|---|
Minaj at the launch of her fragrance, Pink Friday, in November 2012
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| Born | Onika Tanya Maraj December 8, 1982 St. James, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago |
| Residence | Beverly Hills |
| Occupation |
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| Years active | 2004–present |
| Net worth | $75 million (July 2017)[1] |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | |
| Website | mypinkfriday |
Onika Tanya Maraj (born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj (English: /mɪˈnɑːʒ/), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and model.[4][5][6][7][8] Born in Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago and raised in Queens, New York, Minaj gained public recognition after releasing three mixtapes between 2007 to 2009 and subsequently signed to Young Money Entertainment in 2009.
Minaj's first and second studio albums, Pink Friday (2010) and Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (2012), both peaked at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 and produced the successful singles "Super Bass" and "Starships", respectively. In 2010, Minaj became the first female solo artist to have seven singles simultaneously charting on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Her third studio album, The Pinkprint (2014), was preceded by its second single, "Anaconda", which peaked at number two on the Hot 100 and is her highest-charting single in the U.S. to date. Minaj made her film debut in the 2012 animated film Ice Age: Continental Drift, followed by supporting roles in The Other Woman (2014) and Barbershop: The Next Cut (2016). In 2013, she was a judge on the twelfth season of American Idol.
Minaj was the first female artist included on MTV's Annual Hottest MC List, with a New York Times editor saying that some consider her to be "the most influential female rapper of all time".[9] In 2016, Minaj was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world.[10] Her rapping is distinctive for its fast flow and the use of alter egos and accents, primarily British cockney. Early in her career, Minaj was known for her colorful costumes and wigs. She has the most Billboard Hot 100 entries for a female artist in the chart's history, while being ninth overall.[11] Minaj has received ten Grammy nominations throughout her career, and has won six American Music Awards, eleven BET Awards, three MTV Video Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, and was the recipient of Billboard's Women in Music 2011 Rising Star award. She has endorsed Adidas, MAC Cosmetics and Pepsi. She is the best-selling female rapper of all time, having sold 20 million singles as a lead artist, 60 million singles as a featured artist, and over five million albums worldwide.[12][13][14]
Contents
Early life
Onika Tanya Maraj was born on December 8, 1982 in the Saint James District of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.[4] Her father, Robert Maraj, a financial executive and part-time gospel singer, is of Afro-Trinidadian and Indo-Trinidadian descent.[15][16] Her mother, Carol Maraj, also a gospel singer, is of Afro-Trinidadian ancestry.[17][15] Carol worked in payroll and accounting departments during Minaj's youth.[18][19] Minaj's father was addicted to alcohol and other drugs, and had a violent temper, burning down their house in December 1987.[20] She has two siblings.[21]As a small child, Minaj and a sibling lived with her grandmother in Saint James.[15][20] Her mother, who had moved to The Bronx, New York to attend Monroe College,[20] brought the family to Queens, New York, when Minaj was 5.[15] By then the family had a house on West 147th Street.[20] Minaj 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."[22] Minaj successfully auditioned for admission to LaGuardia High School in Manhattan, which focuses on visual and performing arts.[4] After graduation, Minaj wanted to become an actress, and she was cast in the Off-Broadway play In Case You Forget in 2001.[23] At the age of 19, as she struggled with her acting career, she worked as a waitress at Red Lobster in the Bronx, but was fired for discourtesy to customers.[24] She said she was fired from "at least fifteen jobs" for similar reasons.[25] She also worked as an administrative assistant, in customer service and as an office manager for a Wall Street business.[26]
Career
2004–2009: Career beginnings
Minaj in 2009
Minaj released her first mixtape, Playtime is Over, on Dirty Money Records on July 5, 2007[31] and her second, Sucka Free, on April 12, 2008.[32] That year, she was named Female Artist of the Year at the 2008 Underground Music Awards.[33] In 2009 Minaj was involved in a conflict with ego trip's Miss Rap Supreme winner Rece Steele, who was annoyed when Minaj interrupted her interview and put a sign behind Steele's head;[34] Minaj hung up on interviewers from Spate magazine when they asked about the incident.[35] She released her third mixtape, Beam Me Up Scotty, on April 18, 2009[36] and it received favorable coverage on BET and MTV.[37][38] One of its tracks, "I Get Crazy", reached number 20 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Rap Songs chart and number 37 on the magazine's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.[39]
After Minaj was discovered by fellow rapper Lil Wayne,[40] in August 2009 it was reported that she signed a recording contract with his Young Money Entertainment.[41] That November, she appeared with Gucci Mane and Trina on the remix of "5 Star Bitch" by Yo Gotti.[42] Minaj also appeared on "BedRock" and "Roger That"[43] on the compilation album, We Are Young Money (2009).[44] The singles peaked at numbers two and 56, respectively, on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100;[45] their parent album reached number-nine on the U.S. Billboard 200, and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[45][46] Minaj was featured on Mariah Carey's "Up Out My Face", which reached number 100 on the Billboard Hot 100.[47] At Jay-Z's suggestion, that February Robin Thicke featured Minaj on "Shakin' It 4 Daddy".[48]
2010–2011: Breakthrough with Pink Friday
Minaj at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles
Pink Friday was released on November 19,[57] debuting at number-two on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 375,000 copies.[58] "Moment 4 Life" was released as the fourth single shortly after.[59] The album was certified platinum in December, and eventually reached number-one in the United States in February 2011.[60] Minaj performed "Right Thru Me" and "Moment 4 Life" as the musical guest on the January 29 episode of Saturday Night Live.[61] "Super Bass", the album's fifth single, was released in April 2011.[62] The song peaked at number-three on the Billboard Hot 100 and had been certified octuple-platinum in the U.S.[39][63] Minaj credited the song's initial exposure to its mention by Taylor Swift,[64] after videos of Swift and Selena Gomez rapping along to the song went viral, paving the way for Minaj's first big crossover pop moment.[65]
Minaj performing during the Femme Fatale Tour in 2011
Since her breakout with Pink Friday, Minaj has been involved in a feud with rapper Lil' Kim, who accused Minaj of copying her style.[72] Although Minaj's "Roman's Revenge" was thought to be directed at Kim,[73] she said she was "talking about everyone who has been in interviews talking ... no one is worth being singled out. No one is worth having their name mentioned out of my mouth and they never will get that."[74] Kim escalated the feud with her mixtape, Black Friday (2011), whose title and artwork mimic Pink Friday;[72] a fragment from Minaj's diss track, "Tragedy", previewed that April.[75] Their conflict sparked a feud between Minaj and rapper Foxy Brown, who said Minaj misrepresented their conversation about Kim.[76] Brown released the diss tracks "Hold Yuh" and "Massacre" (directed at Kim and Minaj) in November 2010 and January 2011, respectively,[77][78] but Brown and Minaj settled their dispute in June 2012.[79]
2012–2013: Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded and American Idol
"Starships" was released in February 2012 as the lead single from Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded.[88] The song reached number-five on the Billboard Hot 100,[39] and was the fifth best-selling single of 2012.[89] For the most part, mainstream critics didn't receive well the pop crossover move.[90] Minaj was sued by Chicago artist Clive Tanaka in September 2013 for its alleged copyright infringement.[91] Follow-up singles "Beez in the Trap" and "Right by My Side" were released shortly after.[92][93] Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded was released on April 2, two months later than planned.[94]
The album debuted at number-one on the Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 253,000 copies,[58] and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in June 2012.[95] However, its mix of hip-hop songs and mainstream pop material received mixed reviews from music critics.[96] "Pound the Alarm" and "Va Va Voom" were released as the final singles from the album.[97][98] Minaj began her headlining Pink Friday Tour on May 16, 2012,[99] which was followed by the Pink Friday: Reloaded Tour beginning October 14.[100] Although she was scheduled to headline the June 3 Hot 97 Summer Jam at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, at the request of Lil Wayne she canceled her appearance the day of the show after Peter Rosenberg of the station called "Starships" not "real hip-hop".[101]
Nicki Minaj performing during the Pink Friday Tour in 2012
In September, Minaj joined the judges' panel for the twelfth season of American Idol with fellow new judges Mariah Carey and Keith Urban and the returning Randy Jackson.[108] That October a leaked video circulated, with Minaj and Carey in a heated argument during auditions in Charlotte, North Carolina.[109] Carey accused Minaj of saying, "If I had a gun, I would shoot that bitch", but Minaj denied the allegation.[110] Carey said that Minaj created an "unsafe work environment", increasing her security as a result.[111]
Tensions escalated after Carey said that Minaj did not have a number-one song on the Billboard Hot 100 during a live broadcast in May 2013, to which Minaj responded in a series of "extremely harsh" tweets directed at the singer.[112] Minaj and Carey left the series that month, at the end of the season.[113] That year Minaj was the most-charted female rapper in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, with 44 entries, tying Mariah Carey.[114] Her seven nominations led those for rap musicians at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards,[115] and she was the first rapper to win the BET Best Female Hip-Hop Artist Award four consecutive times.[116]
2014–2015: The Other Woman and The Pinkprint
Minaj with Meek Mill backstage durring The Pinkprint Tour in 2015
On June 29, Minaj became the only artist to win the BET Award for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist for five consecutive years, while also tying Missy Elliott for the most wins with five.[128] In November 2014, Minaj released a video containing Nazi-style imagery for her third single "Only". There was immediate backlash from the Anti Defamation League, who stated that it was "troubling that no one among Minaj's group of producers, publicists and managers raised a red flag about the use of such imagery before ushering the video into public release." They called the video "insensitive to Holocaust survivors and a trivialization of the history of that era."[129][130]
On November 9, 2014, Minaj hosted the 2014 MTV Europe Music Awards at The SSE Hydro, Glasgow, Scotland. She also won an award for Best Hip-Hop. In December, Minaj received two Grammy nominations: for Best Rap Song for "Anaconda" and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for "Bang Bang" with Jessie J and Ariana Grande.[131] In March 2015, Minaj embarked on her third world tour entitled The Pinkprint Tour. The tour kicked off in Europe. It is scheduled to travel to the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Dubai, Philippines, Australia and New Zealand. In March 2015, she became the first female artist to chart four songs simultaneously in the top 10 of Billboard's Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop airplay chart.[132] At the 2015 BET Awards, Minaj won her sixth consecutive award for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist, becoming the female rapper with most wins in that category.[133]
2016–present: Barbershop: The Next Cut, upcoming fourth studio album, and other projects
In May 2015, it was announced that Minaj would feature in the third installment of the Barbershop film series, alongside Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, Eve, and other original cast members.[134] Titled Barbershop: The Next Cut, the film was released on April 15, 2016 and received critical acclaim, earning an average score of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. Minaj's character in the film is a "sassy" hairdresser named Draya.[134]It was announced that Minaj will executive produce and appear in a scripted single-camera comedy series for ABC Family (now Freeform) based on her life growing up in Queens, New York.[135] The show has been titled Nicki and is scheduled to be broadcast in 2016. The project, from Aaron Kaplan's Kapital Entertainment, filmed the pilot episode in Minaj's hometown in January 2016, and production has since continued.[135] Ariana Neal will play a young Minaj in the series, alongside Selita Ebanks (her mother), Wesley Jonathan (her father), and McCarrie McCausland (her older brother).[citation needed] In October 2016, Minaj stated the filming was postponed.[136] Nicki Minaj is working on her currently untitled fourth studio album, and has released the singles "Changed It", "No Frauds" and "Regret in Your Tears".
In February 2017, she was featured and co-wrote Jason Derulo's "Swalla",[137] that reached number 6 in the UK singles chart.[138] The next month, she signed with the major modeling agency, Wilhelmina Models.[139]
Public image
Early in her career, Minaj often wore colorful costumes, cosmetics and wigs
In a Guardian interview, Minaj said she competes with male and female rappers. In "Moment 4 Life", she refers to herself as a "king" rather than a queen.[144] Early in her career Minaj claimed to be bisexual, but eventually she said she just did that to get attention. "I think girls are sexy, but I'm not going to lie and say that I date girls."[145]
Minaj has been called the "black Lady Gaga" because of her costumes and wigs. In one interview, Minaj rejected the comparison,[146] but in another interview, she said that she is inspired by Gaga's creativity.[147] Minaj has cited Alexander McQueen, Gianni Versace and Christian Louboutin as her favorite designers.[148] The Huffington Post described her style as "risk-taking" and "far-out", with "bold sartorial choices";[149] Yahoo! called her dress "colorful" and "crazy", and "the fashion and music world would certainly be very quiet without Ms Minaj".[150]
Minaj talked about feminism in an interview with Vogue in 2015, saying "There are things that I do that feminists don't like, and there are things that I do that they do like. I don't label myself."[151]
Billboard listed Minaj the fourth-most-active musician on social media on its March 2011 Social 50 chart.[152] On Twitter, she is the world's most-followed rapper, with over 20 million followers on the app.[153] On Twitter, in public appearances and in interviews, Minaj calls her fans "Barbz" (alluding to her Barbie persona).[154]
Philanthropy
In May 2017, Minaj offered via Twitter to pay college tuition fees and student loans for 30 of her fans. She appeared to grant their requests, ranging from $500 to school supplies to $6,000 for tuition, and promised to respond to more requests in a month or two.[155] She also announced that she will be launching her official charity for student loans and tuition payments in the near future.[156] In the same month, Minaj revealed on Instagram that she has been donating money to an Indian village for a few years via her pastor Lydia Sloley. These donations helped the village get a computer center, a tailoring institute, a reading program and two water wells. "This is the kind of thing that makes me feel the most proud," she said about.[157] In August 2017, after Hurricane Harvey hit the city of Houston, Texas, Minaj answered Kevin Hart social media challenge and donated $25,000 to the Red Cross, saying she was "praying for everyone there".[158][159]Artistry
Musical style
When I started rapping, people were trying to make me like the
typical New York rapper, but I'm not that. No disrespect to New York
rappers, but I don't want people to hear me and know exactly where I'm
from.
Noted as a rap artist, she lends herself to electronic music genres[162] (especially electropop). Pink Friday marked her exploration of the genres, spawning electro songs including the pop-laden "Super Bass".[163][164] Also combining rap with synthesizer music, Minaj's second album had a number of electro-hop and electropop songs: "HOV Lane", "Whip It", "Automatic", "Come on a Cone", "Young Forever", "Fire Burns",[165] "Roman Holiday"[166] and "Beez in the Trap";[167] while "Starships" is a eurodance song.[168] She collaborated with other artists, producing more electronic songs: "The Boys" with "Me & U" singer Cassie and "Beauty and a Beat" with Justin Bieber.[169]
Her verse in Kanye West's "Monster" was critically acclaimed and contributed greatly to her popularity; many critics said she had the best verse in the song.[170][171] Her alter egos are incorporated with her lyrics in British accents (Roman Zolanski) or soft-spokenness (Harajuku Barbie). Ice-T said about Minaj's rapping style, "[Minaj] does her thing. She has her own way of doing it. She has an ill [sic] vocal delivery. She kind of reminds me of a female Busta Rhymes, like how she throws her voice in different directions."[172]
Minaj's "Monster" verse was listed by Complex as the best rap verse of the 2010s.[173] West claimed at one point he considered deleting her verse from the track, because he was worried it would outshine his own work:
It was like that moment when I thought about taking Nicki's verse off of "Monster" because I knew people would say that was the best verse on the best Hip Hop album of all time or arguably top ten albums of all time. And I would do all that work, eight months of work on "Dark Fantasy" and people to this day would say to me 'My favorite thing was Nicki Minaj's verse.' So if I let my ego get the best of me instead of letting that girl get the shot to get that platform to be all she could be, I would take it off or marginalize her, try to stop her from having that shining moment…[174]
Alter egos
With her parents frequently fighting during her childhood, Minaj lived through characters she created as a means of escape. She recalled that "fantasy was my reality" and her first identity was Cookie, who became Harajuku Barbie and (later) Nicki Minaj.[175] In November 2010, Minaj assumed the alter ego Nicki Teresa, wearing a colorful headdress and calling herself "healer to her fans" during a visit to the Garden of Dreams Foundation at Fuse Studios in New York.[176] She introduced another alter ego, Rosa (pronounced with an exaggerated R), to commemorate her December 2010 appearance on Lopez Tonight.[177]For Pink Friday, Minaj created another alter ego: Roman Zolanski, "a demon inside her", Minaj's "twin brother" whose character she assumes when she is angry.[178] Roman has been compared to Eminem's alter ego Slim Shady, and on "Roman's Revenge" Minaj and Eminem collaborate as their alter egos.[179] On her next album, she said that there would be a lot of Roman: "And if you're not familiar with Roman, then you will be familiar with him very soon. He's the boy that lives inside of me. He's a lunatic and he's gay and he'll be on there a lot."[180] Roman has a mother, Martha Zolanski,[181] who appeared on "Roman's Revenge" with a British accent[182] and singing on "Roman Holiday" for the first time.[183][184] Martha appeared in the "Moment 4 Life" video as Minaj's apparent fairy godmother. Although Minaj was rapping in songs such as "All I Do Is Win (Remix)", she promised to introduce Nicki, Roman and Onika on her first album.[178]
Influences
According to Minaj, rapper Jay-Z is one of her two major influences
Jada Pinkett Smith is one of Minaj's role models in her acting career.[198] Minaj was inspired by R&B singer Monica, singing "Why I Love You So Much" at every talent show she entered. Performing in Atlanta on her Pink Friday Tour, she called Monica one of her all-time greatest musical influences.[199] Minaj has also cited Kanye West, Trina and Drake as influences.[200]
She called Betsey Johnson a fashion inspiration: "[Betsey] is a free spirit. When I met her the other day, I felt like I knew her for my whole life. She's so warm and considerate and caring. She's amazingly talented and I've been wearing her clothes forever, so to meet her was like, 'Yay!' [I was] bowing down to her; she's dope!"[201] Minaj has also expressed appreciation for Cyndi Lauper's style and how her videos inspired her as a teenager: "When I first went to get my hair colored, I was about 14 and I wanted blonde highlights. The beautician said, 'No, you have to get your mother on the phone,' and I was just crying and begging. I've always been experimenting. Cyndi Lauper's videos – that's what intrigued me."[202]
Products and endorsements
Minaj has been affiliated with several manufacturing companies and has endorsed a number of products during her career. Her first collaboration was a November 2010 endorsement deal with MAC Cosmetics which sold a lipstick, "Pink 4 Friday", for four consecutive Fridays to promote her album Pink Friday.[203] In 2011, Minaj helped introduce the Casio TRYX in Times Square, and created a six-piece nail polish collection for OPI Products with colors named after her songs.[204][205] That December, Mattel produced a custom-made, Minaj-themed Barbie doll valued at about $15,000 for auction on charitybuzz.[206][207]In April 2012, Minaj helped launch the Nokia Lumia 900 in Times Square.[208] The following month, Minaj appeared in television and internet advertisements for Pepsi's "LiveForNow" campaign, which featured a remix of her single "Moment 4 Life".[209][210] She endorsed the 2012 Viva Glam campaign with Ricky Martin, which raised $270 million for the Mac AIDS Fund.[211][212] With designer Jeremy Scott, Minaj signed an endorsement deal with Adidas' fall and winter 2012 campaign to appear in internet advertisements and commercials for Adidas Originals. Set to her song, "Masquerade", her segment of the advertisement was filmed in Brooklyn and also featured Big Sean, Derrick Rose, Sky Ferreira and 2NE1 in other locations worldwide.[213][214]
In early 2013, Minaj fronted the Viva Glam campaign by herself, which included the introduction of "Nicki 2 lipstick and lip gloss". She also introduced the "Nicki Minaj Collection" clothing line for Kmart, composed of clothing, accessories and housewares.[215][216] In February 2013, Bluewater Comics announced that Minaj would star in the Fame biographical-comic series, debuting in Fame: Nicki Minaj.[217] She partnered with Beats Electronics to introduce her "Pink Pill" speakers in April 2013, appearing with DeRay Davis in a commercial for the speakers that same month.[218][219] In June 2013, Minaj lead an ad campaign for Myx Fusions, a fruit-infused, single serve moscato wine beverage of which she is a part owner.[220][221]
Minaj has a prominent fragrance line, which was launched in September 2012. She partnered with 'Give Back Brands' to introduce her first fragrance, Pink Friday.[222] A "Pink Friday: Special Edition" was released in April 2013.[223] A deluxe edition version of the fragrance, titled "Pink Friday: Deluxe Edition", was also launched in December 2013.[224] Her second fragrance line, Minajesty, was launched in September 2013.[225] A flanker fragrance, "Minajesty: Exotic Edition", was released exclusively to the Home Shopping Network in June 2014. This was followed by the launch of her third fragrance line, "Onika", in September 2014.[226]
In December 2014, Minaj was announced as the new face of the Roberto Cavalli spring/summer 2015 campaign.[227] The campaign images, shot in Los Angeles by Italian photographer Francesco Carrozzini, see Minaj posing in flowy bohemian dresses, defined by embroideries and animal prints typical of the Cavalli brand.[227] On March 30, 2015, it was announced that Minaj is a co-owner of the music streaming service Tidal. The service specializes in lossless audio and high definition music videos. In addition to Minaj and company owner Jay Z, sixteen stakeholders including Beyoncé, Madonna, Rihanna and Kanye West own a 3% equity stake in the service.[228]
In 2016, Minaj stated she has learned the ins and outs of business so she could do it herself.[229] In the same year, she launched her new fragrance "Trini Girl".[230]
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