Nicki Minaj Biography
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Onika Maraj is a female rapper known by her alias, Nicki Minaj. She was born on December 8, 1984 and is of
Trinidadian descent. Nicki Minaj was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York and was raised by a single. Despite her
rough environment growing up, she went on to study singing and acting at LaGuardia High School in
Manhattan which is the school that inspired the movie Fame. Nicki worked as an administrative assistant
after graduating but she dedicated all of her free time to pursuing her music career. She started out as a
background singer and singing hooks for local rappers. Nicki Minaj desired to stand out from other upcoming
artists and that’s when she began to write raps. She was influenced by legendary Missy Eliot, Foxy Brown, and
Lil’ Kim. Nicki Minaj was able to out and was noticed by Dirty Money CEO Fendi because of her profile on
Myspace.com. She was signed by Dirty Money and she soon appeared on the front of the Dirty Money Label, and
‘The Come Up’ DVD. Next, Minaj appeared on the cover of ‘The Carter Edition’ of the DVD series and that’s how
she was noticed by rap star Lil’ Wayne. Lil’ Wayne set up a meeting with Nicki Minaj because he thought that
Minaj would be the perfect face for his Young Money label. Lil’ Wayne like that Nicki Minaj had the ability to
write her own lyrics and she had unique style.
Onika Maraj began to call herself Nicki Minaj because she says she was “eating chicks” on the mic
metaphorically. Minaj also goes several other names such as Nicki the Ninja, Harajuki Barbie,
Nicki Lewinsky, and Sit on your favorite rapper’s face. Soon she and Lil’ Wayne were collaborating on songs such
as Sunshine, and Big Spender. Nicki Minaj released her first mixtape in April of 2007 called Playtime is Over.
The mixtape cover featured Minaj dressed as a Barbie. Her mixtape Sucka Free caused a lot of controversy
because of the cover and promotional posters where Nicki graced the scene with her legs spread. However,
Nicki said she did so to “pull people in” and was then featured in the July issue of XXL magazine.
Nicki Minaj had her big break when Lil’ Wayne collaborated with her on popular mixtape, High as a Kite.
From then on Nicki has been nothing but successful. She released a mixtape called Beam Me Up Scotty
in Spring of 2009 and received a lot of attention from several outlets such as MTV,
BET, and AllHipHop.com. Today, Nicki Minaj has become one of the most popular female rappers on the scene
and can be seen on the covers of magazines, her music can be heard on any hip hop radio station and her
videos are featured on popular music stations.
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