5 Things To Know About Nicki

Check out this article from People Magazine.

With Lil Wayne behind bars, someone's got to keep his Young Money record label relevant. Wayne's artist, Nicki Minaj, is doing just that.

On the mainstream scene for less than a year, Minaj has already won two BET Awards (for best female hip-hop artist and best new artist) and landed a No. 1 single with "Your Love" on the Billboard rap charts.

But the firecracker, 25, who spent the majority of her upbringing in Queens, N.Y., has a lot more to her than wild hair, a racy wardrobe and a foul mouth. Here are five things to know about Lil Wayne's protégé, Nicki Minaj.



1. Nicki Minaj had a rough upbringing
Her lyrics may be silly and carefree, but growing up was anything but lighthearted for Minaj. "[My dad] drank a lot and did drugs, and would get violent when he did," Minaj told Details in May. "He set fire to the house, [and] was attempting to kill my mother. Nicki Minaj got out before it burned all the way down. I've always had this female-empowerment thing in the back of my mind…I thought, 'If I'm successful, I can change her life.' "

2. Minaj has a thing for Charlize Theron
When asked about her celebrity crush, Minaj told PEOPLE it would have to be the Monster star. "She's a bad bitch," Minaj said about the A-lister, whom she hopes to meet someday. "I think she's really, really perky."

3. Lil Kim is not her biggest fan
Girl rappers of a feather don't necessarily flock together, as in the case of Minaj and Lil' Kim, who took jabs at Minaj during concerts, saying she's copying her style and needs "to pay homage" and show some respect. Fellow Young Money artist Drake stood up for his label-mate, saying the comments bothered him and he took them personally. "You don't have to do that. You don't have to get onstage and tell people to pay homage," he said.

4. Nicki Minaj loves interacting with fans via Twitter
Boasting a following of more than a million people on the social networking site (A higher number than active Tweeters Spencer Pratt, Lindsay Lohan, Jessica Alba and Cory Monteith), @NickiMinaj is known to chat up her fans and fan groups. "It says a lot that someone took the time to dedicate a page to me," Minaj told Details about her Twitter fans. "And it’s useful. Anything I do, they post a link to it right away. I don't need to Google myself."

5. Minaj Was a fan of The Hills
When a Minaj follower on Twitter asked the rapper if she watches the now-defunct MTV hit series, she responded, "Yes! I was SO mad wen (sic) Justin Bobby cut his hair!" No one was more shocked about Minaj's taste in TV than the show's former star Kristin Cavallari. "I was really surprised at first that she even knew who we were," Cavallari tells PEOPLE. "But I think it's awesome because I am a big fan of hers as well."

Second Single News

Word on the street is that Nicki's second single from Pink Friday is called "Right Through Me" and will be released in September. It's said to be "a pretty song everyone will like and is insightful in a controversial way." Keep it locked for more info as it develops.

Music: Kanye West "Monster"

This highly anticipated track from Kanye's upcoming album features Nicki, as well as Jay Z, Rick Ross, and indie singer Bon Iver. Nicki KILLS it!

::Download Here::

Nicki Minaj & Lessons From Hip-Hop Protégés

Forbes just delivered the 2010 Hip-Hop Top 20 Earners list, with Jay-Z, Diddy and Akon topping the list and earning $63 million, $30 million and $21 million, respectively. The kings of hip-hop are, yes, all men. But the biggest news in hip-hop protégés is a woman: Nicki Minaj.

The Associated Press’ Mesfin Fedaku can tell you who she is: “The in-your-face, highly animated sex kitten and protégé of rap prince Lil Wayne, has not only emerged as hip-hop’s leading female, she’s outdoing her male counterparts, too.”



Though Minaj, 26, has yet to release a studio album, she’s well on her way to becoming the next Queen Latifah. Or, for the matter, another Eminem (a Dr. Dre protégé), 50 Cent (another mentored by Dr. Dre), Chris Brown (L.A. Reid), Bow Wow (Snoop Dogg) or even Justin Bieber (Usher).

Minaj, whose real name is Onika Maraj, has costarred on songs with Lil Wayne, Drake, Usher, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera and Diddy. Upcoming: Kanye West’s new CD. Lil Wayne signed her to his Cash Money [Young Money] imprint last year.

Where did she come from? Like most other protégés, it seems like hers is a story of a hip-hop Schwab’s soda fountain. Discovered and made into a star.

Stars don’t just happen– in music or the workplace. Some of what we can learn from the hip-hop protégé system:

You can’t win at work by playing the waiting game, waiting for someone to notice you. Minaj is 26, and has been on her game for years. Bieber put his work up on YouTube, and that’s what got him noticed. Use everything from the water cooler to online social networking, and put yourself out there.

If you’re lucky enough to have found a patron (see above), suck it up– meaning take in all his or her creative and technical assistance. Not to mention his or her contacts with upper management and capital.

Ladies in the house: Best not to count on a Prince or a Diddy at work. Specifically, Prince, mentored such artists as Sheila E., Sheena Easton and Carmen Electra. One of Diddy’s protégés is none other than Mary J. Blige. They are anomalies.

The seemingly iconoclastic, insider world of hip-hop owes a huge part of its success to big-time corporations. Many labels are owned by Vivendi’s Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. And hip-hop moguls use the exact same tie-and-cufflink corporate pipeline formula. That is, men shining a light on other men–and far less frequently, other women.

The hip-hop galaxy is as male-dominated as any top corporate boardroom, where women account for only 3% of the chief executives at the helm of the 500 biggest U.S. companies, including Wal-Mart Stores, Exxon Mobil and General Motors.

That foul similarity, according to Queen Latifah is a big problem. “Part of the reason hip-hop was dead is because there were no female MCs, like in the forefront of hip-hop, playing on the radio in the day time, every day.”

Women as well as men need to take on protégés. As Carol Hymowitz wrote in Helping Women Climb the Ladder Is A Business Imperative, “I’ve met many executive women who seemed far more intent on promoting themselves than championing women who were climbing the ranks behind them.”

There’s plenty of women back there.

Nicki Minaj: "I'll Show You More"

Check out the latest article on Nicki from CNN...

Three years ago, Nicki Minaj was getting fired from jobs more often than she was paying her rent on time.

The Trinidad-born, New York City-raised artist has written lyrics about having an alcoholic father who once tried to burn down the house with her mom inside.

Certainly, Onika “Nicki Minaj” Maraj seems to be an unlikely candidate to become one of the most intriguing hip-hop artists of today.

After spending the early part of her childhood at her grandmother’s house, Minaj eventually landed in Queens with her parents. By the third grade, she already had an affinity for singing and acting and would later attend the famed LaGuardia Arts High School to study drama.

“I was thinking in my head I was going to be a famous actress,” Minaj says. “When I got out of high school, I didn’t really want to take time and go and audition, I just wanted to get a job and work and get my own place.”

Minaj quickly became bored with the nine to five and decided to give rap music a shot.

A friend in her neighborhood asked Minaj to write a hook for his song, and the young 20-something delivered a chorus and verse that left her collaborator in awe. Figuring if she really put her mind to it that she could succeed in rap, Minaj decided to quit her last job. And then she told her mother.

“I will never forget the panic and fear in her eyes,” she says. “My heart just frickin’ collapsed for a second. My mother was always like, ‘Yeah, you can do anything,’ but her eyes couldn’t lie …”

That was then.

Today, Nicki Minaj is one of the most influential female artists in hip-hop’s male-dominated landscape.

She is signed to Lil’ Wayne’s Young Money label, has won two BET Awards and is up for best new artist at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. Minaj has also had eight songs land on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart, including three in the Top 10. Her current single, “Your Love,” sits atop the rap charts, and she has collaborated with everyone from Mariah Carey to Kanye West.

And all of this comes before Minaj has even released her debut album (“Pink Friday” drops on November 23). It is for this very reason that growing skepticism seems to follow Minaj’s every move and lyric.

Some cynicism stems from Minaj’s relationship with her mentor, Lil’ Wayne, whom she calls her biggest influence in all aspects of the music business.

Before she met Lil’ Wayne, Minaj was on the mixtape circuit, even pushing DVDs to get the word out. Lil’ Wayne caught wind of Minaj’s first disc and wanted the artist to be the girl in his Young Money camp.

Minaj has no problem the admitting that she and Lil’ Wayne had a “very weird relationship” in the beginning.

“People told me, ‘Wayne’s just saying that because he wants to get in your pants,’ ” she said. “I heard a lot of that, so I really distanced myself away from him.”

Aside from sending each other verses for their respective songs and brief conversations here and there, Minaj would go months without hearing from Lil’ Wayne.

“We just became great friends because I got to know him and his sense of humor, and I no longer felt uncomfortable,” she says. “I realized this dude just wants to make a mark in music, and he has a great eye and a great ear for hip-hop.”

Minaj says her role with Young Money and her career really began to get serious nine months ago.

Even if you don’t know her name, chances are you’ve heard or seen Nicki Minaj in the last year because, frankly, she’s hard to miss. Whether it’s her assortment of multicolored wigs, the arsenal of voices she uses, name-dropping Anna Nicole Smith or her legion of fans known as Harajuku Barbies, Minaj’s larger-than-life persona has garnered praise and disdain from listeners and artists alike.

Minaj says she couldn’t care less about her detractors.

“The people that are inclined to hate are also inclined to be losers. A loser could never congratulate a winner – it’s not in them” she says.

“I just think that what I’m doing seems weird, but I think it only seems weird because it’s exaggerated, but it’s not weird because it’s untrue,” she says.

Often the truth in Minaj’s career is trumped by the rampant rumors swirling around her love life, sexuality and lofty comparisons. Kanye West has said she has the potential to be second-greatest rapper of all time, next to Eminem. Irv Gotti has compared her to Lauryn Hill.

In regards to the latter, Minaj isn’t as humble as one might expect.

“Irv has been privy to hear things that I’ve done that the world hasn’t heard,” she says. “Based on the music I have out now, that sounds like an absurd comment, but when ‘Pink Friday’ comes out, you will completely understand why Irv made that comparison.”

While Minaj loves the praise, she knows that speculation often isn’t far behind. When a photo of Minaj holding hands with her friend and adviser, Diddy, surfaced on the internet, blogs were in frenzy over the idea Minaj was dating the entertainment mogul.

“You know how you look at your older brother? That’s how I look at Diddy,” she says. “When people say that, it makes me gag. He’s my friend, and he’s sweet and he’s a great guy, but I could never see him that way.”

And for the record, Diddy is not her manager, she says.

“I am a very optimistic person, and that’s the only thing that gives me sanity,” she says about those questioning her apparent quick ascension in the business.

“The people who still feel Nicki needs to prove herself — I agree with them. I love the fact that people still feel like, ‘Show me more, give me more,’ because that’s what I was born to do.”

Nicki Has Two More Features Coming

Alexandra Burke signed a multimillion dollar contract with a US label last year and since then Alex and her people have been in the studio working on music for the US release.

Well her people have selected the first US single and it’s going to be “Bad Boys” however instead of featuring Flo Rida (like the standard version) it will feature US rapper Nicki Minaj, no word on the release date however the remix is expected to feature on the re-release of Alexandra’s debut album Overcome (due for release in November).

The first single from Alexandra’s re-release, “Start Without You”, is set to be released September 6th.

Rapper Gucci Mane takes on several different looks on the cover of his upcoming album The Appeal: Georgia’s Most Wanted.

The first single off the album is “Gucci Time” produced by Swizz Beatz. The album also includes collaborations with Ciara, Nicki Minaj, and more.

The Appeal: Georgia’s Most Wanted is due in stores September 28th.

Video: Nicki At The TCA (Updated)

Nicki attended the Teen Choice Awards where she enjoyed her time on the Blue Carpet. Here's some video from the event.