Nicki Minaj was born in Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago, in 1982 and at the age of five, she moved with her family to Queens, New York City. Her real name is Onika Tanya Maraj and after having changed many jobs she became a member of the hip hop and R&B group "Full Force", rapping next to other singers. When she left the group, she began promoting her songs to social media and made her first label contract. She released two mixtapes and won her first award in Underground Music Awards of 2008. After a contract with Lil Wayne's label, she took part in the successful album "We Are Young Money" which came out in late of that year.
Minaj's first album "Pink Friday" came out in 2010 and includes the top rap hit "Your Love", along with "Right Thru Me" and "Super Bass", which became eight times platinum in the USA. She was the first female musician having 7 songs entering the Billboard Hot 100 chart at the same time. The reached the second place to the album charts and Minaj won her first Grammy nomination for her participation in "My Chick Bad", a song by Ludacris. She followed a tour as a support artist of Britney Spears and continued performing in live shows, while she collaborated with Kesha in the remixed cover of Spear's song "Till the World Ends", in 2011. The video of "Super Bass" gave Minaj her first MTV Video Music Award in late of that year.
"Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded" came out in 2012 and reached the top of the US chart. Among its hits are "Starships" and "Pound the Alarm". Minaj worked with Madonna and several artists and won one more MTV Video Music Award for "Starships" along with an MTV Europe Music Award for "Best Hip-Hop". She continued the live appearances, sometimes causing controversy because of her provocative dressing or themes on stage. Nevertheless, she won her fourth BET Award in a row for "Best Female Hip-Hop Artist".
Her first role in a movie was in "The Other Woman", while her third album came out in late 2014, under the name "The Pinkprint". It peaked at the second place of the USA charts, with the hit "Anaconda" to separate, as well as the corresponding music video. Minaj continued receiving several important music awards and to collaborate with great artists and musicians, while she appeared in four movies, some documentaries and many TV shows. Her fourth album named "Queen", was released in 2018, also entering at the second place of the charts. Like the previous, it contains collaborations with many artists, such as Eminem, Lil Wayne, Ariana Grande, The Weeknd and other, with the hit "Chun-Li" to separate. Because of her influence in female rap history, she is regarded by many as the "Queen of Rap".
Nicki Minaj
