“When I first came to America,” Nicki Minaj said, “I would go in my room and and
kneel down at the foot of my bed and pray that god would make me rich so that I could
take care of my mother.”
She has 10 Grammys, millions of fans around the globe and an image that’s impossible
not to recognize.
Today, Nicki Minaj is an icon of success, a role-model for many girls and a woman you
cannot help but ti treat with respect.
Nicki Minaj and her family moved to USA, from Trinidad and Tobago, when she was just 5.
Looking at her now - one of the richest women in rap and a goddess for many young fans,
it is hard to imagine her growing up in a very poor family.
Nicki’s father was a drug addict for a long time with a grave and violent past.
He was so appalling that he even tried to set the house on fire in an attempt to kill
Nicki’s mother.
Fortunately, she managed to survive, probably with help from the heavens.
She recalls the days when she would come home and discover furniture missing in the house
- sold for another dose.
She once had a prophetic dream: her husband burning the house down.
She ordered her kids to sleep at her friends house the next day.
That night, her nightmare came true, but she was alone in the house and managed to escape.
Nicki’s father became a living nightmare.
"He could be.
Especially when he was drinking.
It's weird, because when he was on crack, he was more peaceful, and when he would drink,
he became loud and violent.
Each drug has its own spirit,” says Nicki, recalling her childhood.
Her mother worked hard as a nursing assistant but even at work all she could think about
was Nicki and her younger brother’s safety.
"We moved so many times when I was a kid.
We were always running away from him.
Whenever we got to a new house, he would find us."
Minaj says that her sorrowful childhood is what helped her become a strong, independent
and proud woman.
"I've always had this female-empowerment thing in the back of my mind," she told Details
magazine, "because I wanted my mother to be stronger, and she couldn't be.
I thought, 'If I'm successful, I can change her life.'"
So Nicki started dreaming about fame and glory.
When she turned six, she announced to her family that she was going to be the greatest
soap actress in the world.
"Fantasy was my reality," she has said.
At 12, Nicki wrote her very first rap and decided to pursue her dream at LaGuardia High
School of Music and Art - the one that inspired the movie Fame.
Unfortunately, her acting career failed and she had to work as a waitress to make a living.
But she faced one more flop, as she got fired from the restaurant for her rude attitude with clients.
Nicki admits she was fired from "at least 15 jobs" for the same reason.
She was never ashamed to same what she really thought and didn’t care much about her reputation.
"The last job I had was as an office manager in a little, tiny room where I literally wanted
to strangle this guy because he was so loud and obnoxious," Minaj recalls.
"I would go home with stress pains in my neck and my back.
That's when I went to my mother and said, 'Look, I'm not going back to work.'"
But she wasn’t used to giving up and firmly decided to pave her way to the top of rap music.
She started by doing backup singing roles for local New York City rappers, including
Full Force.
No wonder she soon started to write her own songs.
Due to her hard work and maybe with a bit of a luck as well, Nicki got noticed by Dirty Money.
The CEO Fendi was looking through her page on MySpace and he loved what he heard so much
that he immediately signed her to his label.
That new link in the world of music led her to Lil Wayne and that’s where her career
started to speed up.
She released her first single three years later and her first album got the Best Hip
Hop Female title at the annual BET Awards.
In 2010 her seven singles featured in the US top charts.
She is now improbably famous in her own right but in a very distinctive manner.
"When I started rapping, people were trying to make me like the typical New York rapper,
but I'm not that," Minaj says.
Indeed, Nicki is unique, exotic and not afraid to do what she likes.
And that’s why she won our hearts.
Her bright and outstanding music videos have hundreds of millions of views on YouTube.
Nicki is often harsh in her statements and does not beat around the bush.
She refused to compromise her lyrics, even after becoming a rap phenomenon, which meant
that she now attracted a younger audience too.
"Why do people ask me to lose swear words?
Do people ask Eminem to lose swear words?"
But while her career was going up, her personal life had a huge hurdle.
Her break from her 12-year relationship with Safaree Samuels, was not what you'd call a “happy ending”.
He took credit for her success in music: 'You ain't do it all alone we took ourselves up
out the hood'.
Shady business, domestic abuse and allegations of cheating were just a few of the reasons
that led to the couple's split.
The two started a long string of altercations, and accusing each other of different things.
It's still not clear who is right and who is wrong.
Samuels mentioned his ex fiancee in his track Love the Most, accusing Nicki of cheating,
taking him for granted and even of using drugs.
Nicki wasn't even bothered, and in return advised him to stop feeling sorry for himself
and move on.
While she was being dragged into this drama, Nicki started dating rapper Meek Mill, Tweeting:
And just for the record, I'm in love with meek,' she added.
'Lol and now I have a huge smile on my face.'
Unfortunately, the couple broke up two years later.
Minaj opened up about her personal life on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Without mentioning any names, Nicki said: “There is a new boy, but he and I have kind
of fell back a little bit.
“And then there’s like a newer [boy] – he’s been around for a couple of weeks now.’
But then quickly clarified: ‘But I don’t have a boy.’
Who else is dying of curiousity?
She also added: “I was in a relationship with Meek for a while, which ended, and it
was a very toxic something.
But we had good times and we ended that."
Nicki has been living the single life since then and looks happier than ever.
"I’ve been in a relationship my whole life.
I was in a relationship since I was 15 years old.
This is the first time that I’m single, and I’m happier," says the rapper.
Seems like she just needed some time to figure herself out.
Nicki Minaj always talks about her strong love to her young audience and how she tries
to embrace the power of being a role model: "I tell my Barbs, 'Stay in school, respect
your body, don't go giving it away, don't depend on a man.'
I tell them that all the time."
"I want to show little girls that the possibilities are endless"
Isn’t it inspiring?
Thanks for watching!
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