VSAnd “album will be my greatest gift to humanity so far.” A few weeks ago, this is what Nicki Minaj modestly shared on social networks. Announcing the arrival of Pink Friday 2, an opus “that people will fall in love with immediately”, it also specified its release date: December 8, 2023, the star’s birthday.
It was in fact on this same day, forty-one years ago, that she was born in Port-of-Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, in the Caribbean. Onika Tanya Maraj, her real name, is the youngest of three children, with two older brothers. His father, Robert, works in accounting; his mother, Carol, is a stockbroker. However, the little girl spent her first five years with her grandmother, receiving visits from her parents only occasionally. Maybe it’s better… Because when they get her back, all hell begins.
The family then moved to New York, in the very mixed neighborhood of Queens, and Robert Maraj’s demons took on their full extent. Drugged and alcoholic, he takes his anger out on his wife. “I ran to my room, knelt at the foot of my bed and prayed that God would make me rich enough so that I could free my mother,” will explain the singer in the columns of Rolling Stone. Unfortunately, the kid will have to wait before becoming the highest paid rapper in the world and in the meantime, her father terrorizes her. She tells “the screaming and punching holes in the walls.” “He was so violent, physically and verbally! will she remember in the Sun. All my youth, I lived in fear that he would murder my mother!” One night, he even nearly killed his entire clan by setting the house on fire. Fortunately, they all emerge from the flames at the last minute. Nicki is traumatized…
But determined to get out of this quagmire. His salvation? The music. Since childhood, her parents introduced her to it, they being gospel singers. In high school, this clarinet enthusiast had only one idea: enter the LaGuardia arts school, the one that inspired the film Fame. Unluckily, on the day of her audition, she lost her voice which forced her to join the theater section of the establishment. This is not necessarily where she excels, if we are to believe the refusals she receives from casting directors after obtaining her diploma. Like many aspiring actors, she must therefore reconsider her ambitions and become a waitress to pay her bills. The problem is that she has trouble putting on a commercial smile.
At Red Lobster, she was fired militarily, after she gave the finger to a customer who had taken her pen by mistake! This kind of rudeness will earn her around fifteen other dismissals… Fortunately, it will not take long for her to get noticed in the field that really began to interest her: rap, for which she wrote a first title in 12 years. In 2002, the Dirty Money label spotted her on MySpace and offered her a contract. The musician is in heaven! She even agrees to change her name, even if it means bitterly regretting it later. “They wanted me to be called Minaj and I gave in. Since then, I have hated this nickname!” of his words to Guardian. What she hates most of all is having her laws dictated to her. But it’s already too late to become Onika Maraj again… Because fame comes quickly for Nicki Minaj.
Known by Lil Wayne, with whom she recorded several duets, she loves the stars of the moment. His first album, Pink Friday, includes collaborations with Kanye West, Rihanna and Drake. Sorry! Result: the opus reached the top of the charts upon its publication in November 2010, and Nicki’s career was launched. Especially since she doesn’t forbid anything, and especially not to diversify, moving away from pure and hard rap. Opening for Britney Spears, for example, doesn’t bother her at all… Just like working with David Guetta, Willow Smith, Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber. It’s even THE good idea, to make yourself known to a wider audience than that of hip-hop.
It must be said that her look also helps: it’s impossible to miss her with her colorful wigs and her doll-style outfits on acid. Thanks to her sartorial extravagances, she becomes another… Which corresponds well to her mania since childhood: “To escape from family arguments, I imagined being a different person, she admits in the New York Magazine. Cookie was my first identity. Then Barbie Harajuku and finally Nicki Minaj. The fantasy was my reality.” Alter egos that she invites into her songs, like this “angry twin” named after Roman Zolanski, reminiscent of Eminem’s Slim Shady. Different characters who add to the elements that have made her success, from her stylistic madness to the ultra-funny punchlines that she is accustomed to in her texts… Without forgetting her provocations, between repeated clashes and hypersexual dances.
In 2014, the hot clip ofAnaconda, punctuated by Nicki’s butt movements, will for example be viewed 20 million times on the day of its release! “I don’t base my career on my sexuality,” she swore at the time to Interview. Because the queen of twerk affirms it: beneath the trashy exterior, she is the first of the feminists. Especially with this family history that continues her, despite the death of her father, mowed down by a driver in 2021. “In the back of my mind, I always hoped to make women strong, because I wanted my mother to be strong, she says in Details. I always told myself that if I was successful, I could change his life.” Nicki, in any case, imposed her undeniable power.
First female rapper to join the list of the most influential people in the world Time, she was also celebrated at the National Museum of African American Culture in Washington as a pioneer of hip-hop. As for his records, they continue to be a hit, despite a complicated market. In a few days we will see if the next one is indeed “the gift given to humanity” that she promises. In any case, the detractors of this opus will undoubtedly be yelled at by the main interested party… With Nicki, watch out for Minaj’s scenes!
Surgery ? That’s enough !
recourse to surgery, on his body as well as his face. But last month, the woman who recently underwent a breast reduction finally admitted in Vogue regret changing his appearance. “I would pay to look like I did at 25. I used to want a bigger butt, and now I realize how stupid that was.” So the scalpel is over!
Clash-clash game
©Collin Xavier/Image Press Agency ABACA
If she has VIP friends, like Beyoncé or Ariana Grande, the rapper is best known for her legendary fights. Among his targets? Taylor Swift, whom she publicly accused of promoting thinness, or Miley Cyrus, whom she called “slut” in the middle of the MTV Video Music Awards ceremony. During his only season on the juryAmerican Idol, we will also hear her tackle her colleague Mariah Carey, explaining that she could “shoot the damn highness”. Nice ! But her great enemy remains Cardi B, “this disgusting slut” with whom she even came to blows during an evening organized by the magazine Harper’s Bazaar, in 2018. On the art of putting your fists on the I…
Fake brother
She idolized Jelani Maraj for a long time, this big brother who tried to protect her from paternal violence! “I know that he will always love me and that I will always love him too”, does she even sing in the title All Things Go. Except that in December 2015, this beloved elder was arrested by the police for having raped his 11-year-old stepdaughter for months! The singer is devastated and helps her brother by paying his deposit. Perhaps she shouldn’t have… At the trial, his guilt is recognized and he receives twenty-five years in prison, while Nicki is accused on social networks of having defended a pedophile. Family I hate you…
His loves
©LuMarPhoto/AFF/ABACA
From the beginning, Nicki’s love life was eventful, she having an abortion at just 15 years old! In 2002, however, she found serenity with producer Safaree Samuels, whom she presents as her best friend. The story will last twelve years! Then she fell in love with rapper Meek Mill, with whom she had a tumultuous romance from 2012 to 2016, the lovers accusing each other of domestic violence. Next comes rapper Nas, then a brief romance with Lewis Hamilton. Since 2018, she has been in a relationship with Kenneth Petty, a high school sweetheart whom she has since married and with whom she had a son in 2020. Cute? Not only that, Mr. Minaj being a habitual criminal, notably convicted of attempted rape! A few weeks ago, he was under house arrest for having threatened to kill Offset, the husband of Nicki’s best enemy, Cardi B…
His career
2007: PLAYTIME IS OVER
Nicki releases her first mixtape, created in particular with Lil Wayne. On the cover, she poses Barbie style.
2010: PINK FRIDAY
His first album includes tracks with Rihanna! In one week, it sold 375,000 copies in the United States.
2012: AMERICAN IDOL
She joined the telecrochet jury with Mariah Carey, with whom her on-screen arguments
2014 : THE PINKPRINT
With this third album, the star hits a big blow, partly thanks to the featurings of Beyoncé and Ariana Grande.
2014 : TRIPLE ALLIANCE
For her first film role, the one who once wanted to be an actress appears alongside Cameron Diaz.
2018: QUEEN
Fourth album by the singer, who plays Cleopatra on the cover, photographed by the famous duo Mert and Marcus.
2019: ANGRY BIRDS 2
In this sequel to the animated film, Nicki lends her voice to Pinky, a funny pink bird. The role fits him like a glove…
DECEMBER 8, 2023; PINK FRIDAY 2
New opus from the star, released on his 41st birthday. She says it’s the best of her career.
Maëlle Brun