The famous female rapper/hip-hop artist, Nicki Minaj skyrocketed herself to fame with famous songs like “Super Bass” which was once incorrectly interpreted as “Superb Ass” by an interviewer in a show if you remember, it became meme content later.
| Real Name: | Onika Tanya Maraj |
| Born: | December 8, 1982 |
| Occupation: | Rapper, singer, songwriter, actress |
| Genres: | Hip hop, R&B, pop, dance |
| Labels: | Young Money, Cash Money, Republic |
| Spouse: | Kenneth Petty (m. 2019) |
| Children: | 1 |
| Website: | nickiminajofficial.com |
Nicki Minaj Biography
The female hip-hop superstar, Nicki Minaj was born on the 8th of December in the year 1982, her most famous tracks were: “Starship“, “Super Bass” and the most famous of them was “Anaconda” which apparently had all women with the biggest butts in the world in its music video.
I often feel like that is what made the Anaconda song that famous and these are the songs that got Nicki the most fame. Anaconda was the song after which I personally came to know about some fat A S S female artist who was selling her albums so good.
She was the first-ever female solo hip-hop artist to have her seven singles on the top 100 Billboard chart simultaneously.
Nicki Minaj’s birthplace is in the Caribbean and when she was 5 years old, she had moved to New York City and faced many hardships in her childhood in order to become a success in Hip Hop industry.
Her friendly colleague and label mate: Lil Wayne had commented very positively about her and her career, he called her ‘an icon” and concluded that Nicki has reached far beyond anything Lil Wayne himself would have imagined. He then adds that he believes Nicki will go down as one of the best hip-hop artists to do in the history of music.
Early Life of Nicki Minaj
Onika Tanya Maraj or famously known as Nicki Minaj now was born in the Caribbean, in Saint James Port of Spain, Trinidad, and Tobago to be exact, on the 8th of December in 1982.
Now let’s come to know about her family: Robert Maraj, his father, was a financial executive and a part-time gospel signer of Dougla, Douglas are the Caribbean people who are a mix of Indian and African descent.
Sadly her father passed away in February 2021 cause of an accident. Nicki also wrote about her father as the most devastating moment of her life.
Her father was an Indo-Trinidadian and her mother, Carol Maraj, was an Afro-Trinidadian and she was also a gospel singer like Nicki’s father but with Afro-Trinidadian ancestry, however, during Nicki’s youth her mother, Carol, worked in payroll and accounting departments.
It is known that Nicki’s father was an addict, addicted to crack cocaine and alcohol, and just like every addict had a violent temper on top of that. It is known that he once burned down his own house in December 1987.
Nicki Minaj also has siblings, which is quite new news for me, she has a younger brother and an older brother, Jelani and Micaiah respectively, and also a younger sister named Ming (a pretty short and cute name by the way).
You won’t believe Nicki lived at her Grandma’s place when she was young along with her brother in Saint James and not just with her brother but 11 other cousins, quite a family.
Before getting a green card, her mother Carol was working a number of jobs in Saint James at a good young age of 24.
Then after receiving a green card her mother alone moved to The Bronx in New York City to pursue her college studies in Monroe College and left behind both Minaj and son Jelani with grandmother in Trinidad.
Later, when Nicki Minaj turned the age of five, Carol got a house for herself in Queens and took both of her kids, Jelani and Nicki to live with her and their father on 147th Street in South Jamaica.
Minaj disclosed once that she didn’t have a lot of discipline in her household when she was a kid. She credits her mom to motivate her but that it wasn’t a strict household at all, and that Nicki kind of wanted a strict one.
She did an audition for a college: Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, this college is known to focus on visual and performing arts, where Nicki successfully got admission after an audition.
Nicki is also an actress you may already know, and she was cast in the Off-Broadway play in 2001 in Case You Forget and this was after her graduation that she wanted to become an actress.
She struggled with her acting career when she was at the age of 19, she started working as a waitress to pay her bills at a Red Lobster in the Bronx but was fired for discourtesy to customers.
She had revealed that she was fired from at least 15 jobs for the same or similar reasons. Some other jobs that she did and got fired included office management on Wall Street and customer service representative.
A quite strange comment she added after this, that she also bought a BMW as a 19-year-old with the money from waitressing which is hard to believe because waitressing really doesn’t pay that much.
Controversies of Nicki Minaj
Her controversies include the one with the rapper Remy Ma, this feud originated in 2007 when Remy Ma took note of Nicki’s record: ‘Dirty Money‘, from the mixtape Playtime is Over released in 2007.
Minaj recites some lyrics in that song that were believed to be aimed towards Remy Ma, however, she later denied this fact.
The lyrics were: “Tell that bitch with the crown to run it like Chris Brown/she won three rounds, I’ma need a hundred thou/like ‘Chinatown’—bitches better bow down/oh you ain’t know, betcha bitches know now/fuck I got a gun—let her know that I’m the one”. To be honest, the lyrics were quite good.
One another feud Nicki had was with another rapper Lil’ Kim since her success with the duet studio album Pink Friday. Lil’ Kim accused Nicki Minaj of copying her image and Minaj’s single with Eminem: Roman’s Revenge was believed to be a response to Kim but again like always she later denied this.
Another one of the famous feuds of Nicki Minaj is with another famous rapper Cardi B during New York Fashion Week 2018, when Cardi B threw one of her high heel shoes at Nicki. This feud got the most heat, you can read more about it in the other article we wrote about Cardi B.
So this is all about Nicki Minaj in this article of LyricsVan.com, we believe we have covered all the major facts and information about Nicki Minaj as an artist.
If you would like to read more about Nicki Minaj, about every aspect, news, and facts about her, then check out her biography on Wikipedia.