$$..Onika Maraj (Born December 8, 1984) known as Nicki Minaj is a female rapper from Southside Jamaica, Queens, NewYork. She grew up in a troubled home, with a father on drugs and a struggling single mother. Despite her hectic environment, Minaj went on to graduate from LaGuardia High School in Manhattan where she studied singing and acting.

Working as an administrative assistant, she dedicated all of her free time to pursuing a potential music career. Nicki Minaj started off singing, from background vocals, to hooks for local rappers. Minaj wanted to “stand out” more, from the average dime-a-dozen young aspiring singer and began writing raps. Starting out as the lone female in a group, (which she left in 2006)

Nicki soon branched out and was noticed on Myspace by Dirty Money CEO Fendi. Who signed her and put her on the front of his Dirty Money Label, and his The Come Up DVD.

Appearing on The Carter Edition of the DVD series, Minaj was noticed by rapper Lil’ Wayne who immediately called Fendi to negotiate meeting Nicki. He was convinced by not only her different style of rapping, but her ability to full on write her own material that she was perfect to be the face of his Young Money label. The two collaborated on mixtape styled remakes of tracks such as “Sunshine”, “Big Spender” and more recently a song entitled “Higher than a Kite” which uses T.I.’s “My Swag” beat. In April of 2007, she released her first mixtape entitled Playtime is Over. Where she posed as a Barbie doll on the cover. Lil’ Wayne appeared on the track “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop”.

Nearly a year later, 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 brief 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. Its pronounced as Menage, only spelled to compliment her real last name with a J instead of the traditional spelling.

Aside from her original moniker, Minaj also uses an array of Aka aliases to describe herself, such as; “Nicki Lewenski”, and “AKA Sit on your favorite rapper’s face”...$$

NICKI MINAJ QUOTES

“I Been Bad Since Sticky Hands
Now All These Bitches is Nicki Fans”
‘Get it All’ – Sean Garrett featuring Nicki Minaj
“Thumbs up like im hailin a yellow cab
My flow NUTS like M&Ms in a yellow bag”
‘Up Out My Face’ – Mariah Carey featuring Nicki Minaj
“Money in the air it’s a festival
Cause I ba-ba-ba-ba ball no testicles”
‘Shakin It For Daddy’ – Robin Thicke featuring Nicki Minaj
“Wanna Play Meet Me At The Fumble Line
Cause Umma Ninja Cowabunga Time”
‘Shakin It For Daddy’ – Robin Thicke featuring Nicki Minaj
“You can hate me but why knock my hussle
I’mma be the queen no matter how they shuffle
Skirts with the ruffle, Louie on the duffle
I’m a bad b*tch, no muzzle”
“Now I’m a dime, you a nickellete
Light skinned-ed pig-ament, stop copyrightin’ infringement
I eat these rap b*ches, somebody get me a dinner mint”
‘Get Silly’ – Nicki Minaj

NICKI MINAJ - RIGHT THRU ME

Nicki Minaj Reveals What Her & Drake’s Kids Would Be Like

Nicki Minaj and Drake flirt so much publicly, their fans are still wondering if the two are just friends. And the artists don’t mind playing into the rumors, either. Nicki Minaj revealed to BBC Radio’s Tim Westwood what it would be like if they had kids.
“I think they’ll definitely have my personality. My mother-in-law will be super beautiful, so that’s good ’cause Drake’s mom is freaking amazing. I love her. They’ll have Drake’s intelligence, they’ll have his sarcastic wittiness that I love about him, they’ll have his songwriting skills. I think we’ll just make a real creative bunch of kids. Wait, did I just say that me and Drake will make kids?”
Realizing what she said, Nicki then gave the truth, explaining that their relationship is more like brother and sister. “I think that would be like incest or something.”
However, she still felt the need to ask the host, “Do you think they’d be more talented than Jaden and Willow [Smith], if me and Drake really did that?”

Nicki Minaj Dubbed The “Queen Of Hip-Hop” In London, Talks Pressure Being A Female Rapper

Nicki Minaj is continuing her takeover in London and speaking on her rise to fame with her debut album Pink Friday.
The raptress who was dubbed the “Queen Of Hip-Hop” by Britain's DJ Semtex, gave an interview to 1 Xtra's Trevor Nelsen and discussed a number of topics including the pressure she feels being one of the few female rappers in the game.
She tells Nelsen,

“I'm a new artist and I'm already at the bottom of the totem pole because I'm a female rapper. We barely have our own categories at awards show….I'm at the bottom of the totem pole already and then I get to produce something knowing that people are just waiting to critique it….and they're comparing me to….Kanye whose what? Four or five albums deep…the fact that they're even comparing to me these people is a blessing.”

As previously reported, Minja's Pink Friday has surpassed Kanye's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in sales and went platinum this month with over 1 million units sold.

NICKI MINAJ VIDEOS: