Real name | Onika Tanya Maraj |
Born | December 8, 1984 |
Stage name | Nicki Minaj |
Occupations | Singer, songwriter, rapper |
Current city | New York |
Motherland | Trinidad |
Everyone known by her stage name Nicki Minaj, Now lives in New York City. Born in Trinidad. She grew up in a troubled home, with a father on drugs and a struggling single mother. She moved to the Queens borough of New York City as a child and graduated from LaGuardia High School in 2003. She released her first mixtape Playtime Is Over in 2007. Appearing on The Carter Edition of the DVD series, Minaj noticed by rapper Lil’ Wayne who immediately called Fendi to negotiate meeting Nicki. He was convinced by not only her different style of rapping. After Minaj was discovered the famous American rapper Lil Wayne and signed a deal to Young Money Entertainment with distribution from Universal Motown in August 2009.
Her debut studio album Pink Friday (2010) became a commercial success, peaking atop of the U.S. Billboard 200 and being certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America a month after its release. She became the first artist ever to have seven songs within the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time. Her second single, "Your Love", reached number one on the Billboard Hot Rap Songs chart. Minaj is the first female artist to top the chart unaccompanied since 2002. She also became the first female artist to be included on MTV's Annual Hottest MC List.
Nearly a year later, Nicki Minaj released her second mixed CD titled Sucka Free. Controversy surrounded this as Nicki paid tribute to rapper Lil’ Kim by posing with her legs spread for promotional posters. She describes it as something to “pull people in”, so that they would listen to what she had to say. Nicki Minaj graced the pages of the July issue of the XXL magazine giving a overview of her life up to that point in time.
Originally using her real last name Maraj, Nicki boasts she started calling herself Minaj because she started “eating chicks”, with her vicious rap skills. It’s pronounced as Menage, only spelled to compliment her real last name with a J instead of the traditional spelling. On Saturday, January 29, 2011, Minaj appeared on Saturday Night Live as the guest. She performed her super hit songs "Right Thru Me" and "Moment 4 Life". On February 9, 2011, it was announced that Pink Friday had reached number one on the Billboard 200 in its eleventh week on the chart. Minaj is also ghostwriting and working on TLC's Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins' new upcoming album, Still Cool.
