Name: Nicki Minaj 
She’s your favorite rappers’ favorite female rapper
Let’s get something straight. Nicki Minaj is more than just “Not Bad for a Girl.” She’ll straight embarrass some of your favorite same testosterone-fueled MCs. The Queens, N.Y., rhymer born Onika Maraj made a splash with her 2008 mixtape Sucka Free—that was a then-23-year-old Nicki getting her Lil’ Kim on in a raunchy butterfly pose while licking a lollipop. Now the first lady of Young Money has a new mixtape, Beam Me Up Scotty, that’s making noise, and the cinnamon head-turner is now working on her much-anticipated major label debut. Will Nicki Minaj save female rap? She certainly has the goods.
Do you get a little intimidated when people call you the savior of female rap?
I don’t think intimidated is the word. I definitely get excited by it. I don’t want to let anybody down. I’ve always been the type of person to make everybody happy and get things done. I want everything to be 100 percent perfect. I do feel it when people hold me to high expectations.
On your latest mixtape, Beam Me Up Scotty, you covered a diverse range of musical genres from dancehall to club music to hardcore hip hop. Will we see that type of production range on your major studio debut?
I think that the album will be a little bit more focused on one type of sound. But you know, I definitely want to be one of those artists that continue to do their mixtapes. The people that just really love the ‘Street Nicki’ can still get a dose of that; but I think that when the album comes out, it will be more focused on things that you would hear on the radio. It will be more radio-friendly because honestly, those are the type of records that I like to write. I don’t think people know that about me. Records like “Kill da DJ” and stuff like that, I have fun writing that; I have fun singing. Those songs make me happy. So I think I want to make my album more like that. But whatever I do, I always will have those real songs where I talk about real things.
Do you have a specific story you want to get out to the fans? Click to continue reading »
I have a song I wrote called “Autobiography.” I came from a very intense living situation, with having a parent on drugs and not having a lot of money. So I always want to talk about the real things. But I think 90 percent of my music, I want it to be ‘feel-good music’. I’m already recording tracks for my album, but when it comes time to actually say, ‘this is the album,’ I may be in a completely different space than I’m in right now.
Now as far as the label situation goes, everybody’s been asking the $64,000 question: “What label is Nicki Minaj going to sign with?”
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