M.I.A. will be the first to tell you if she doesn’t like someone, just ask Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber. But luckily for Nicki Minaj, the outspoken artist has nothing but respect and admiration for her.

The omnipresent Nicki Minaj guests on the remix to M.I.A.’s /\/\/\Y/\ album cut “Teqkilla,” rapping, “Yo Maya, your shit is on fire.”

M.I.A. returned the compliment to her collaborator in an interview on 102.7 KIIS-FM’s “New Music Show.” “Nicki Minaj runs hip-hop,” she told DJ Skee of the Harajuku Barbie, whose debut album is due November 23.

She also shared why she thinks there’s so much buzz surrounding the Young Money femcee. “She works hard and that’s what it is. She’s focused and that’s good,” she explained. “It’s been a while since a female rapper has come up with that much… She’s got a really good work ethic, and I get her.”

Rumours of Sean “Diddy” Combs being Nicki Minaj’s manager spread before, during, and after Rick Ross and Diddy announced their “partnership” in which the two will join forces in several business ventures.

These rumours were fuelled by an earlier rumour that Nicki Minaj fired her management team after she was dropped from Rihanna’s international tour.

Rounds of rumours spread about Diddy and Nicki Minaj dating after several public appearances holding hands.

“I hold everybody’s hands! I hold my bodyguard’s hands!” she said.

Nicki Minaj might have been born in Trinidad and raised in Jamaica, Queens, but the 25-year-old rapper and one-woman style tornado makes music like she comes from another planet. Minaj’s Harajuku Barbie aesthetic and penchant for autographing the breasts of her devoted female fans notwithstanding, she is arguably one of the strongest female voices to emerge in hip-hop in the last decade.

“I don’t mind being called a weirdo,” says Minaj. “There are a lot of people in hip-hop who are probably never going to get what I do. But, by just being myself, I end up touching a lot more people who might never have paid much attention to a female rapper.” Minaj has worked hard to establish her own voice, writing all her own material and not leaning on sex appeal. “I made a conscious decision to try to tone down the sexiness,”

she says. “I want people—especially young girls—to know that in life, nothing is going to be based on sex appeal. You’ve got to have something else to go with that.” It was Minaj’s oversize personality and kaleidoscopic raps that drew the attention of her new friend and mentor Lil Wayne, who signed her to his Young Money label in 2009. Since then, Minaj’s progress on her hotly anticipated debut album, Massive Attack (due out this fall), has been slowed only by her popularity as a collaborator.

She’s popped up on tracks for artists such as Usher, Robin Thicke, and Mariah Carey. “One of the biggest highlights of this year was being onstage with Jeezy, Wayne, and Drake in the middle of Jay-Z’s set at Madison Square Garden,” says Minaj. “And not only did we do a song together, but I was in a video with Mariah Carey! I still haven’t gotten over that!”

Q: What can women get away with in hip-hop that men can’t?
A: I have a lot of freedom to be crazy. I can rap in a London accent, make weird faces, wear spandex, wigs, and black lipstick. I can be more creative than the average male rapper. And I can show my boobs. Guys can’t do that.

Q: You sign your fans’ breasts at shows. Do their boyfriends get jealous?
A: If anything, boys are telling me to sign their girls’ boobs. I’ve gone through 15 markers in a single night—because the girls are usually sweating, and a marker will stop writing if the girls are wet.

Q: As an openly bisexual rapper, do you think hip-hop is getting more gay-friendly?
A: I think the world is getting more gay-friendly, so hip-hop is too. But it’s harder to imagine an openly gay male rapper being embraced. People view gay men as having no street credibility. But I think we’ll see one in my lifetime.

Q: Having studied theater in high school, what would you say is the difference between rapping and acting?
A: With me, there really isn’t one. I look at rap as an opportunity to act. My head is full of different characters—in each song I’m auditioning a character.

Q: On Twitter you follow a bunch of Nicki Minaj fan groups. Ever get tired of reading so many tweets about yourself?
A: Hell no! It says a lot that someone took the time to dedicate a page to me. And it’s useful. Anything I do, they post a link to it right away. I don’t need to Google myself.
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What are your thoughts on this cover?

It’s great to me. I’ve never done XXL, so it’s exciting. And to be doing it with Nicki, man, that’s my dog. That’s more than my dog. That’s, like, we have the most interesting relationship, ’cause it’s so multilayered. That’s my co-worker, my peer, my family. But, at the same time, on any given day, she’s, like, the love of my life… Nicki’s a very intriguing character. To be doing it with her is great, man.