Onika Tanya Maraj known professionally as Nicki Minaj is an American rapper, singer, actress and song-writer she started to gain popularity when she signed with Young Money Entertainment in 2010 but let`s see what happen with her before her first album and before fame.
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| Minaj in 2013 |
Early life
Onika Tanya Maraj was born on December 8, 1982 in Saint James, District of Port of Spain. At the age of 4 she moved from Trinidad to Queens(New York) . Her family was instabile and at the age of 5 her father burned down her house from Queens when he was drunk. After that they moved in a basement of a house. She said she`s proud of where she comes from and she love to visit the place where she spent his childhood. She also have a big brother and she grew up with her grandma since she was 5 after her mother moved to Bronx.
From a young age she wanted to be an actress. Minaj successfully auditioned for admission at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, after he graduated she played in a off-Broadway play In Case You Forget in 2001.
Nicki at 15 years old
After she struggled to became an actress, she worked at Red Lobster but she was fired from that job of discourtesy to customers.And she was fired from ”at least 15 jobs ” for the same reason.
The Begging of Nicki Minaj
Minaj signed with the Brooklyn group Full Force in 2004 In 2004, the group recorded the entrance song for WWE Diva Victoria, "Don't Mess With", which was featured on the compilation album ThemeAddict: WWE The Music, Vol.6. Minaj later left Full Force.
She uploaded some of her music on MySpace and send it to some people from the music industry. She signed a contract with Dirty Money Records for 180 days .
She released her debut mix-tape „Playtime is over” in July 2007 , her second mix-tape Sucka Free on April 18, 2008 and her third and final mix-tape Beam me up Scottie which gave birth to I get Crazy which figured in top 20 Rap/Hip-hop song in US.
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| Minaj in 2008 |
In August 2009 Nicki was discovered by Lil Wayne and she signed with Young Money Entertainment.
Minaj appeared on "BedRock" and "Roger That" on the compilation album, We Are Young Money (2009). The singles peaked at numbers two and 56, respectively, on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
Pink Friday and Breakthrough
On March 29, 2010 Massive Attack was released as the lead single of her debut album but the song was a comercial failure and was shortly replaced with Your Love which was released on June 1, 2010.
Your Love peaked at number 14 on US Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at number 1 on Billboard Rap/Song. In September that year Nicki released Check it out and Right thru me as singles .
In October, Minaj became the first female solo artist to have seven songs on the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously and the first woman to appear on MTV's Annual Hottest MC List.
The same month she was featured on Kanye West's "Monster", and received wide praise , with many critics regarding it as the best verse; The Village Voice’s Sean Fennessey stated that “Monster” was the track that announced Minaj’s “brilliance” to most people. In November 2010.
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| Minaj at the 2010 MTV VMA`s |
Minaj received her first Grammy Award nomination for her guest verse on Ludacris' song "My Chick Bad".
Pink Friday was released November 19, 2010 and debuted at number 2 on US Billboard 200, with 375.000 units in the first week , the album peaked at number one on Billboard 200 in February 2011.
The album is her best selling album in US and had massive succes of his perfect balance of Pop and Rap. My personal favorites are Moment 4 life, Super Bass, and Roman`s revenge.
Also Moment 4 life was released as the fourth single of Pink Friday on December 7, 2010.
"Super Bass", the album's fifth single, was released in April 2011 and became a sleeper hit and commercial success; it ultimately peaked at number-three on the Billboard Hot 100 and was eventually certified octuple-platinum in the U.S.
Minaj was one of the opening acts on Britney Spears ’2011 Femme Fatale Tour. She and Kesha appeared on the remix of Spears' "Till the World Ends," which peaked at number-three on the Billboard Hot 100. On August 7, 2011 Minaj was criticized for wearing the low-cut shirt during her performance which led to the brief exposure of her breast on a live telecast. ABC apologized for incident. Minaj, while interviewed on ABC's Nightline show, apologized for the incident and denied that she intentionally sought to expose herself on live television as a publicity stunt. The incident attracted protest from the Parents Television Council. Despite this, Minaj continued to perform at high-profile events throughout 2011; Donatella Versace invited her to perform with Prince for the introduction of a Versace collection for H&M, and she performed "Super Bass" at the 2011 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. In December 2011, Minaj was nominated for three Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist and Best Rap Album for Pink Friday. Also that year, she won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Hip-Hop Video for "Super Bass", marking her first VMA win.
Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded and The Re-Up
"Starships" was released in February 2012 as the lead single from Minaj's upcoming second album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded.The song reached number-five on the Billboard Hot 10, and went on to become the fifth best-selling single of 2012 and one of the best-selling singles of all time. Minaj started to receive criticism but that didn't affected her comercial succes.
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| Starships cover |
Follow-up singles "Beez in the Trap" and "Right by My Side" were released shortly after. Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded was eventually released on April 2, 2012, two months later than planned.
The album was preceded by the promotional singles "Roman in Moscow" and "Stupid Hoe".
The album debuted at number-one on the Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 253,000 copies, and was certified platinum by the RIAA in June 2012. However, its mix of hip-hop songs and mainstream pop material received mixed reviews from music. The album as described as a mediocre Hip-Hop lbum by some critics ans ”a mega pop album" by other critics. Personally I guess the album is amazing and give you a nasty energy. And Nicki herself said ”the album is about feeling good”. My personal favorites are Starships and Va Va Voom Pound the Alarm" and "Va Va Voom" were later released as the final singles from the album
Minaj and rapper M.I.A. joined Madonna to perform the single, "Give Me All Your Luvin '", during the Super Bowl XLVI halftime show on February 6, 2012.
Minaj was the first solo female rapper to perform at the Grammy Awards, premiering "Roman Holiday" during the 2012 ceremony on February 12. Her exorcism-themed performance was controversial, with the American Catholic League criticizing Minaj for bringing a fake "Pope" to escort her on the red carpet. The "exorcism" scene that was performed during her appearance was criticized as well. Catholic League president Bill Donohue called Minaj's performance "vulgar."I describe it as icomic amd nothing more.
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| Nicki Minaj Grammy Performance |
Minaj began her headlining Pink Friday Tour on May 16, 2012, which was followed by the Pink Friday: Reloaded Tour beginning October 14, 2012 Although she was scheduled to headline the June 3 Hot 97 Summer Jam at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, at the request of Lil Wayne she canceled her appearance the day of the show after Peter Rosenberg of the station dismissed her single "Starships" as "not real hip-hop".
The following month, Minaj voiced Steffie in the animated film Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012). She won awards for Best Female Video (for "Starships") at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards and Best Hip-Hop at the 2012 MTV Europe Music Awards. Her collaboration with Pearl Future on the song "Looking At Me" made it to the top 20 on BBC Radio 1. An expanded version of Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, subtitled The Re-Up, was released on November 19, 2012. That month , Minaj was the subject of a three-part E! documentary titled Nicki Minaj: My Truth. She announced plans for her own record label after signing Parker Ighile, Brinx and Black Movement.
In September, Minaj joined the judges' panel for the twelfth season of American Idol with Mariah Carey, Keith Urban, and Randy Jackson. In 2012, Minaj was a big contributor in helping with raising $ 250 million for an AIDS campaign.
That year, Minaj was the most-charted female rapper in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, with 44 entries, tying Mariah Carey among women of all genres.
Her seven nominations led those for rap musicians at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards, and she was the first rapper to win the BET Best Female Hip-Hop Artist Award four consecutive times. Before any other female artist, she was on the Forbes Hip-Hop Cash King List where she was ranked fourth in 2013, earning $ 29 million.
Overall this era was more controverted but that didn`t affected Minaj`s comercial succes. This era also was represented by Roman Zolanski (her alter ego) and a lot of colorful wigs.
What do you think about this article ? tell me in the comment section if I scraped some information .
Stay tuned for part two :)
the begging🙄🥺🤨
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