From Le Grand Journal...
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
"Nicki Stole The Show" -The Wallstreet Journal
Minaj performed two songs during the program (”Moment 4 Life” and “Right Thru Me”), and also appeared in a couple skits, including “Bride of Blackenstein,” a send-up of blacksploitation films. The bit featured Jay Pharoah as Dr. Blackenstein, Kenan Thompson as the monster, Eisenberg as Igor, and Minaj as the bride.
Somebody get her a big-screen movie role, quick.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
'I Am Music II' Tour Dates Announced!
Lil Wayne is hitting the road this March for his I Am Music II tour, the sequel to his record-setting 2009 trek that grossed the superstar over $40 million.
On Monday (January 24), the New Orleans MC announced the outing, on which Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross, Travis Barker and Mixmaster Mike will join him as opening acts. The 24-city tour opens March 18 in Buffalo.
Tickets go on sale February 4 through Live Nation.
March 18 – Buffalo, NY – HSBC Arena
March 19 – Columbus, OH – Nationwide Arena
March 20 – Baltimore, MD – 1st Mariner Arena
March 23 – Hampton, VA – Hampton Coliseum
March 24 – Cleveland, OH – Quicken Loans Arena
March 26 – Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center
March 27 – Long Island, NY – Nassau Coliseum
March 30 – University Park, PA – Bryce Jordan Center
April 1 – Chicago, IL – United Center
April 2 – Detroit, MI – The Palace of Auburn Hills
April 3 – Washington, D.C. – Verizon Center
April 6 – Miami, FL – Bank Atlantic Center
April 8 – Greensboro, NC – Greensboro Coliseum
April 9 – Atlanta, GA – Philips Arena
April 10 – St. Louis, MO – Scottrade Center
April 14 – New Orleans, LA – New Orleans Arena
April 15 – Dallas, TX – American Airlines Arena
April 16 – Houston, TX – Toyota Center
April 19 – Phoenix, AZ – US Airways Arena
April 23 – Anaheim, CA – Honda Center
April 24 – Oakland, CA – Oracle Arena
April 26 – Sacramento, CA – ARCO Arena
April 28 – Edmonton, Canada – Rexall Place
April 29 – Vancouver, Canada – Rogers Arena
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Photos: Nicki On King Magazine (Updated)
Of course.
What would be your dream role?
I’d like to play someone in a Tim Burton movie, where I get dressed up and painted and crazy.
You kind of do that now.
Then I want to be able to do some action stuff, like Angelina Jolie.
Like in Salt?
Yes! And then I’d like to just play a regular girl who, you know, is facing the world. Something really sentimental and organic, that girls all around the world can identify with. You know, how Jada Pinkett Smith did in Jason’s Lyric.
Classic film. You did mention earlier how everything has been time consuming. But when that time frees up, what kind of guy do you look for to be sentimental and organic with?
Um, I look for someone who is calm, someone who is strong enough to not have to win every argument, someone who allows a woman to be her crazy self and someone with a conscience not to feel less of a man. You know, someone who is able to honor his woman but also bring out the freak in his woman.
How should your Ken bring out the freak in you, Barbie?
Just being super aggressive when the time is right.
Are we talking about Mortal Kombat–style “Come here” aggression?
Just something that makes me feel like they’re in control, when we are behind closed doors.
Read the rest of this article in the next issue of King, on stands early next month.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Video: Nicki On Unknown Set
Nicki looks fabulous doing "Bottoms Up" with this guy, but what is this the set of?
Friday, January 14, 2011
Nicki To Appear On SNL!
Miss Minaj will be the musical guest on Saturday Night Live with host Jesse Eisenberg on January 29th!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Sneak Peek: "Moment 4 Life" Video
Nicki is her own fairy god mother and Drake is her groom in this new video!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Nicki Nabs NAACP Nomination
Congrats to Nicki on receiving an NAACP Image Award nomination for "Outstanding New Artist"! The show airs March 4th on Fox.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Nicki In Clash Magazine
But Onika Tanya Maraj (AKA Nicki Minaj) is far more than a gob-for-hire and whilst ‘Monster’ will act as 101 to many, the coming twelve months look certain to see the hip-hop hive fall to the beat of a new queen bee.
Moving from her native Trinidad and Tobago at the age of five to live in the New York borough of Queens, Minaj is marinated in the patchwork of her adopted hometown - callous and materialistic one moment, sentimental and welcoming the next. Cutting her teeth on a couple of stellar mixtapes (‘Beam Me Up Scotty’ and ‘Barbie World’), Minaj possessed a confidence and unwillingness to adhere to gender tropes that would have made her a prime target for the ubiquitous haters were it not for the innate talent fuelling her larynx.
Festooned in a cerise wig and matching lippy, Minaj flirts with the overt sexuality that plagues hip-hop; refusing to succumb to the notion of women as trophies to be paraded alongside grinted teeth and snazzy rims. Minaj takes her position as a role model seriously - avoiding the wanky faux-feminism of Lady Gaga in favour of an authentic portrait of 21st Century womanhood.
Vocally touching base with the likes of Santigold, MIA and Eve, Minaj’s cadence closest resembles that of Missy Elliot - but where the grandmother of hip-hop sticks primarily to rap Minaj is just as willing to get her lungs out. Showcased on the Annie Lennox-sampling ‘Your Love’, Nicki Minaj has a deep and soulful singing voice that lends her debut album ‘Pink Friday’ a contrast all too often missing from urban leaning releases. And it is this ability to exist in the overlapping Venn diagram of pop, hip-hop and credibility that will see Nicki Minaj owning 2011 with pink volition. Digested read; she is mother fucking monster!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
Nicki Is Spin's Rookie Of The Year
Spin Magazine has deemed Nicki the best new artist this year... duh- of course she is! Check out the article here!
"I represent my entire generation," a female vocal careens from Studio A at Daddy's House, the dingy midtown Manhattan recording mecca owned by Sean "Diddy" Combs. When the studio door opens, there is Nicki Minaj, wearing a cotton-candy-colored fright wig. She is surprisingly short -- Kewpie-ish, even -- in jeans, a T-shirt, and brown riding boots, mouthing along to every word of her new song, "Fly." Two cameramen, a boom operator, a recording engineer, her publicist, and her hype man and closest confidant, simply known as S.B., surround her. She is smiling, but not happy.
"Do you mind if we tape this?" she asks, immediately after I ask the same exact thing. Our conversation is being filmed.
Of course it is. Because Nicki Minaj is the most beguiling female rapper since Missy Elliott and the most exciting new artist of the year. In 2010, if your song had a guest verse from Nicki -- and no fewer than 11 did, turning megastars like Kanye West, Mariah Carey, Lil Wayne, Drake, and Usher into afterthoughts on their own tracks -- it was probably a hit. And so MTV is making a documentary about her before she's even released her first album.
"She's like the Gaga or Beyoncé of rap," says Swizz Beatz, who produced three tracks on her debut, Pink Friday, including the antic Eminem collaboration "Roman's Revenge."
"Can you put that second 'whoo' back on the end of the chorus, please?" Minaj says to the engineer, who cues up the song. "Yeah, right there." On this October afternoon, she's putting the finishing touches on Pink Friday, but she's not letting anyone hear it yet -- especially not a journalist. For the past five days a crew has trailed her to chronicle the making of the album, and the constant presence of cameras is starting to get to her. But the former drama student dutifully plays her part.
Nicki Minaj was born Onika Tanya Maraj in Trinidad 25 years ago. One of her earliest memories is hearing "Somewhere Out There," the heart-melting theme from the 1986 animated mouse fable An American Tail. "It made me feel sad," she says. "Like there was something in the world I wanted to see or be a part of."
She found it when she moved to Queens at age six. A self-proclaimed class clown and teacher's pet, Minaj studied acting at Manhattan's LaGuardia Arts, better known as the Fame school, but only because she was rejected by the singing program. When Lil Wayne saw her rap on the 2007 street DVD The Come Up, acting had to take a backseat. He adopted her into his Young Money collective, and eventually helped sign her to his label.
And you can hear Wayne's influence: Minaj is known for attacking with a cadre of voices (loud, soft, deep, girlish, accented, sensual, hysterical) and alter egos (tough chick Nicki, sexy Harajuku Barbie, phantasmagoric Roman Zolanski, and Roman's British mother, Martha). "Artists should definitely get therapy," she says with a sort of hard-knock Valley-girl inflection. "I don't think this is a normal thing. It's on the verge of being insane to be an artist. There is no other way to vent, unless you want to go to jail."
At times during our conversation, Minaj appears numb to her own narrative, fidgeting and applying makeup. (She's prettier without it.) She speaks quickly but rounds out thoughts with "So, yeah," and then stares blankly, her massive brown eyes unblinking, waiting for the next question.
But Minaj, for all her impatience, is savvy about fostering fandom. She calls her followers Barbies, or Barbz for short, building her own inclusive community. "People ask me if there's some scientific definition of it and, like, I'm supposed to have an epiphany of an answer," she says, exasperated. "It's not like I did a thesis and decided, Oh, Barbie, yay! It's an endearment I use."
"I need to know if this bar mitzvah thing is still happening!" Minaj is on the phone with her business manager, trying to confirm tonight's private gig. "I'm willing to do whatever I have to do," she says. "A fan is a fan."
Minaj's frankness is refreshing, but it's the fact that she is already receiving such requests that's so unusual. Though she has been rapping since she was 16, her 2008 mixtape Sucka Free was her coming-out moment. In the run-up to Pink Friday, she's built her reputation with a unique look -- a delightfully kooky, bewigged, robot-on-cocaine sort of thing -- and her ability to steal songs in just 16 bars with a keen mix of purring sexuality, agog aggression, and steely braggadocio. On West's "Monster," her best guest verse, she unleashes this brash mission statement: "Let me get this straight, wait / I'm the rookie?/ But my features and my show's ten times your pay? / 50K for a verse, no album out."
So, Pink Friday is a big deal.
"It's a challenge, because there hasn't been a major female rapper in a decade," says Bryan "Birdman" Williams, the CEO of her label, Cash Money. "But she is nothing but swagger. Her skills are incredible. I think she can be one of the biggest females to ever do it."
It's true, female rappers have historically sold far less than their male counterparts, but Minaj's arrival also marks an intriguing return to oddity. She balances her zaniness with pop-friendly constructions -- her best-known solo hits, "Your Love" and "Right Thru Me," are more about melodrama and singing than inventive rapping. But those songs lack the electrifying eccentricities of her verse on Trey Songz's "Bottoms Up," a Roman Zolanski appearance that finds her stammering, convulsing, and modulating her voice to sound like Marilyn Monroe. So the normalizing of Nicki Minaj seems a tricky proposition. Swizz Beatz thinks that's hardly the point. "Her music is rap in different lights," he says. "She's not scared to experiment."
She used to hate the studio, she says, until "the music changed and it got so good. I'm a fan of Nicki Minaj now."
At the end of the interview, with my recorder off, Minaj and I chat amiably. I press her about hearing the rest of Pink Friday. When it becomes clear that I'm asking as a fan and not a journalist, her disaffection cracks. She stands up, opens both arms, and motions for me to hug her. "Come here, I won't bite," she says, a broad smile creeping onto her face. "Thank you for coming to talk to me."
She's so small, I think, and when I touch her back, I feel her microphone pack. Our conversation is still being recorded.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Video: Nicki On Carson Daly's New Years' Eve Special
Nicki also did "Moment 4 Life" on this stage but I'm still looking for a video.
Video: 106 & Party - Young Money/Cash Money
If you were out getting wasted last night instead of watching TV, fear not; Check out the whole show including Nicki performing "Did It On 'Em" and "Moment 4 Life" with Drake!
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