What Happened to Nicki Minaj?

By CelebPaid Editorial Team · 8 min read

Nicki Minaj.Image via Wikimedia Commons

The Rise to Fame

Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (née Maraj; born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( NIK-ee min-AHZH), is a Trinidadian rapper, singer, and songwriter. Dubbed the "Queen of Rap", she is known for her dynamic rap flow, witty lyrics, musical versatility, and alter egos. Often regarded as one of the most influential rappers of all time, she is credited as a driving force in the mainstream resurgence of female rap since the 2010s.

Raised in New York City, Minaj began rapping professionally in the early 2000s and gained recognition with her three mixtapes between 2007 and 2009. Minaj's debut studio album, Pink Friday (2010), opened with the largest female rap album sales week of the 21st century, topped the US Billboard 200, and spawned the single "Super Bass". She explored dance-pop on her second US number-one album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (2012), which produced the top-five single, "Starships". She returned to her hip-hop roots with The Pinkprint (2014) and Queen (2018), which yielded the singles "Anaconda" and "Chun-Li". Minaj achieved her first Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles with the 2020 duets "Say So" and "Trollz"; the former was the first female rap collaboration to top the chart. Her fifth studio album, Pink Friday 2 (2023), made her the female rapper with the most US number-one albums (three) and spawned her first solo US number-one single, "Super Freaky Girl". Its concert tour became the highest-grossing by a female rapper and one of the top five highest-grossing tours by a rapper in history.

Minaj is one of the best-selling music artists and the best-selling female rapper, with over 100 million records sold. She has over 54 million certified singles sold in the US and three diamond-certified singles, and in 2024 became the first female rapper with multiple diamond-certified solo songs (two) by the RIAA. In 2023, Billboard and Vibe ranked Minaj as the greatest female rapper of all time. Her various accolades include a Brit Award, five Billboard Music Awards, nine American Music Awards, eight MTV Video Music Awards (including the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award), eleven BET Awards, a Soul Train Music Award, and three Guinness World Records. Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2016, and she was honored with the Billboard Women in Music Game Changer Award in 2019.

The Peak Years

Minaj founded the record label imprint Heavy On It in 2023. Outside of music, her other endeavors include a fragrance line, a press on nails line, a Loci sneakers collection, and the radio show Queen Radio (2018–2023). She has also voice acted in the animated films Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) and The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019), and acted in the comedy films The Other Woman (2014) and Barbershop: The Next Cut (2016). On television, she served as a judge on the twelfth season of American Idol (2013). Her outspoken views have received significant media attention.

Early life

Onika Tanya Maraj was born on December 8, 1982, in Saint James, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Her father, Robert Maraj (1956–2021), was a financial executive and part-time gospel singer of Dougla (Afro-Trinidadian mother and Indo-Trinidadian father) descent, while her mother, Carol, is also a gospel singer with Afro-Trinidadian ancestry. Her mother worked in payroll and accounting departments during Minaj's youth. Her father was an alcoholic and crack cocaine addict whom Minaj described as violent to her mother and committed arson on their house in December 1987. Minaj has an older brother, a younger brother, and a younger half-sister.

What Changed

As a child, Minaj lived with her grandmother in Saint James in a household with 11 cousins. Her mother worked many jobs in Saint James before getting her green card at the age of 24. She then moved to the Bronx, New York City, to attend Monroe College, leaving Minaj in Trinidad with her grandmother. When Minaj was five, Carol brought her to live with her and her father in South Jamaica, Queens. Minaj said she arrived in the U.S as an illegal immigrant, after which she gained legal resident status.

Minaj successfully auditioned for admission to Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, which focuses on visual and performing arts. A week after graduation, she was cast in the Off-Broadway play In Case You Forget. In her youth, Minaj worked many jobs, including as a waitress at a Red Lobster in the Bronx, customer service representative, and office management on Wall Street, and was fired for discourtesy to customers.

2002–2009: Career beginnings and mixtapes

From 2002 to 2004, Minaj rapped in a New York hip hop group called Hoodstars. The son of Bowlegged Lou from Full Force, Lou$tar, recruited Minaj when he and his father heard her work. Bowlegged Lou said that back then Minaj was already doing "the crazy voices" in her vocal performance. 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. After the group failed to secure a record deal, Full Force tried to connect Minaj with some record companies, including Warner Brothers, who expressed interest in signing Minaj out of the group but required a ghostwriter for a deal. Minaj rejected it, adamant that she will always write her songs. Brian George from Full Force said that Minaj was impressive in her ambition, describing her as "broke and hungry" while determined to be in control of her craft.

Where Nicki Minaj Is Now

Minaj continued to work independently as a solo artist and uploaded her songs on her Myspace profile, sending several of them to people in the music industry. In 2006, Fendi, who owned the Brooklyn production company Dirty Money Entertainment, reached out to Minaj on Myspace, and signed her to Dirty Money under a 180-day contract. Her original stage name, Nicki Maraj, was changed to Nicki Minaj. Minaj wrote a number of songs, including "Itty Bitty Piggy" and "I Get Crazy", and booked shows in New York and New Jersey. She released her first mixtape, Playtime Is Over, on July 5, 2007. Her work was featured on the underground rap DVD The Come Up Vol. 11 and caught the attention of rapper Lil Wayne, who invited her to join his new Young Money crew. Minaj collaborated with Wayne, but she did not sign a contract with Young Money at that time. She continued working independently on her songs, communicating with fans on social media, and booking shows.

On April 12, 2008，Minaj released her second mixtape, Sucka Free. She released her third mixtape, Beam Me Up Scotty, on April 18, 2009, garnering favorable coverage. At the time, she was managed by Debra Antney. By 2009, Minaj's mixtapes, freestyles, and features on other artists' songs had garnered significant industry and public interest. The Beam Me Up Scotty track "I Get Crazy" reached number 20 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Rap Songs chart and number 37 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. In the summer of 2009, she performed on a tour headlined by Wayne featuring artists from Young Money, among others. There was a bidding war among record labels to sign her. In August, Minaj signed a recording contract with Young Money, with her deal entailing her owning her 360 rights, including her merchandising, sponsorships, endorsements, touring and publishing. In a 2011 interview, Minaj said that before she met Lil Wayne, the person who was guiding her in her career always told her, "'Don't be too playful, don't be too kooky and weird... no one's gonna feel that, nobody wants to hear that.' So I stifled a lot of that early on, and then once that we parted ways, I was like, 'Guess what, I'm gonna just be me.'" In October 2009, she performed a freestyle at the 2009 BET Hip Hop Awards cypher. The following month, she featured alongside Gucci Mane and Trina on the remix of "5 Star Bitch" by Yo Gotti.

2010–2011: Breakthrough with Pink Friday

Legacy

In early February 2010, Minaj made her first two appearances on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart with her features on "Knockout" and "Up Out My Face" by Lil Wayne and Mariah Carey respectively. Minaj also appeared on "BedRock" and "Roger That" from the compilation album We Are Young Money (2009). Robin Thicke featured Minaj on his single "Shakin' It 4 Daddy".

On March 29, 2010, Minaj released "Massive Attack" featuring Sean Garrett. The song was thought to be Minaj's first single from her upcoming debut album, which she was still working on. However, it was not included on her album. Her next single, "Your Love", became the album's lead single. Released in June, it peaked at number 14 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Rap Songs chart.

The rapper was then featured on Christina Aguilera's song "Woohoo", which reached number 79 on Billboard Hot 100. In September, Minaj released "Check It Out" with will.i.am and "Right Thru Me" as follow-up singles.

In October 2010, Minaj featured on Kanye West's "Monster", a posse cut with Jay-Z and Rick Ross featuring vocals from Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. Her verse received widespread acclaim with many critics regarding it as the best verse on that song. Complex rated Minaj's "Monster" verse as the number-one best rap verse in the past five years, while Sean Fennessey of The Village Voice stated that "Monster" was "the track that announced Minaj's "brilliance" to most people." Shortly after, she performed "Monster" with West and Jay-Z at Yankee Stadium, becoming the first ever female rapper to perform there. That month, Minaj became the first...

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