Nicki Minaj
Nicki Minaj Biography
Nicki Minaj is a Trinidadian-born rapper, singer-songwriter, television host, and icon of female empowerment based in the United States. Referred to as the “Queen of Rap”, she is one of the best-selling music artists with more than 100 million records sold worldwide.
She has been called “the most influential female rapper of all time” by The New York Times and “the world’s biggest female star” by Nylon magazine.
She very quickly gained recognition after she released three mixtapes between 2007 and 2009. She has eight music videos with more than one billion views across all credits on YouTube, becoming the first female rapper to do so.
She has won several awards, including six American Music Awards, eleven BET Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, and three Grammy Award nominations.
Nicki Minaj was born Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty in Saint James, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago on December 8th, 1982 (Sagittarius). She grew up in the south of Trinidad before moving to Queens, New York City at age five.
As a child, she learned to play the clarinet at Elizabeth Blackwell Middle School before graduating from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School.
In 2004 Minaj briefly signed with Full Force under the name Nicki Maraj where she formed a quartet called The Hoodstars with Lou$tar, Safaree Samuels (under the pseudonym Scaff Beezy), and 7even Up.
After her Pink Friday: Reloaded Tour ended in March 2013 she announced that she was working on her third studio album which was released in November 2013 as The Pinkprint. It featured collaborations with Jessie Ware, Skylar Grey, Meek Mill, Lunchmoney Lewis, and Jeremih among others.
In 2018 Minaj attacked Spotify for not promoting her album Queen enough via Twitter. In 2020 she collaborated vocally with Canadian singer Avril Lavigne on her single Dumb Blonde and won her first BRIT Award for Best International Female Solo Artist.
Nicki Minaj has a net worth of $100 million, with some sources estimating it to be as high as $150 million. She rose to fame in 2010 with the release of her first album Pink Friday, which sold over 375,000 copies in the first week. In 2021, her net worth saw a nearly 30% gain.
She has since recorded four studio albums, one re-issue, with three mixtapes, amongst which are some collaborations with other performers.
Her debut album, Pink Friday, was released in November 2010 and featured the lead single “Your Love”. Other popular songs include “Super Bass”, “Did It On’em” and more, which can be found on her Essentials playlist on Apple Music and Spotify. She has also collaborated with Drake on the song “Moment 4 Life”.
