Lil Wayne signed her to his label, Mariah Carey and Usher put her in their videos, and now Robin Thicke is singing the praises of Nicki Minaj.

It was the smooth operator’s pal Jay-Z who first put him up on the Young Money femcee, who he affectionately calls Ninja. The two ended up collaborating on the Polow Da Don-produced “Shakin’ It 4 Daddy,” which he plans to release as the next U.S. single from his Sex Therapy album.

Like many, Thicke fell for the hip-hop Barbie. “Nicki is a very, very special young lady,” he tells Rap-Up.com. “Not only is she incredibly talented and sexy and charming, but she’s also a really good person and she’s very smart, so I think she’s gonna have a very long career.”

Before we get to see his on-screen chemistry with Minaj, the new father will team up with another rap star, Snoop Dogg, in the video for “It’s in the Mornin’,” filmed last month in Malibu.

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Nicki Minaj is on the rise, the Queens M.C. is doing her thing in 2010, not only has she resurrected a New York rap scene but at the same time she has placed herself at the top of the list of the best female M.C. in the game right now. Nicki sat down with XXL to shed some light on all the rumors, where she sees herself in the game and what influence Young Money CEO Lil Wayne had in her life. Check out some excerpts from her interview.

Your buzz has been growing more and more each month. How has that felt for you?

Yeah, I guess it has been growing, thank God. I dunno, it’s been an exciting whirlwind. I never really know what to expect. But the buzz has definitely been heightening, so I’m happy.

When did you first start to feel that things were coming together for you?

I definitely think that, when I shot the [“Up Out My Face”] video with Mariah Carey, I started feeling like, Wait a minute, this is not something I really ever envisioned for my life just nine months before that. (more…)

Nicki Minaj’s success was obtained quicker than expected. She’s one of the only females, if not the only female in the rap game right now that’s making noise. Although she’s only looked at as a rapper, her music style includes rapping and singing. Nicki actually speaks to XXL Magazine about where she sees her career going.

“You know what, I’m a female entertainer,” Nicki clarified, “but I don’t let it offend me when people call me a female MC or female rapper, because I just look at it as a challenge.”

“I’m about to climb over every single barrier and just put females on a different map altogether,” she continued. “So I take it as it comes. Like, I don’t think in five years people will consider me a female rapper—I’ll be, like, an entertainer. But, as of right now, I get it. I started off in the underground hip-hop circuit, so I’m a female rapper right now. But it’s just the beginning.”

Be sure to pick up your copy of the magazine as it hits newsstands on April 20th!

Source: Global Grind

Just about every hip-hop fan has an opinion about Nicki Minaj. Whether her ubiquity is seen as a blessing or a nuisance is to be debated, but her presence is unavoidable. The game has never been ashamed of crowing one femcee at a time and at the moment Minaj is Little Miss Popularity. But what do her predecessors think of her? Foxy Brown is a fan, Rah Digga says she’s “awesome,” Trina shared her 31st birthday with her, Lil Kim hasn’t commented and Eve…

“I am a fan of the fact that she’s a female MC in the game. I gotta be honest, I don’t really know many of her records. I’ve seen a few things, honestly I don’t [remember them] and I’m being really real. I don’t really know her that well,” she tells VIBE. “When she was on [the “My Chick Bad” music video] set, she was nice as shit. To me, if her music was dope and she would’ve been an asshole than I wouldn’t have been a fan. I’m more a fan of hers as a person.”

Though Eve—who met Minaj for the first time in late March and heard the final versions of Ludacris’ “My Chick Bad” a week before the Miami shoot—wasn’t too familiar with the Young Money front-woman’s catalogue, she did think her verse was one-of-a-kind. “I mean, I think it’s unique to who she is. It is what it is. You know what I mean? I thought it was dope,” she says.

“She definitely is a quirky chick. That’s a good word for her. When she had the Freddy Krueger gloves I was like ‘Wow.’ But at the same time, whatever you decide to do, especially in music, you gotta go hard and own it. You can’t be timid wearing Freddy Krueger gloves in a video. If you look insecure, people are going to be like ‘Why are you doing that?’ You gotta fucking own it and she did. I think that’s dope.“

But with Minaj’s growing omnipresence, does Eve feel threatened or propelled?

“Trust me, no one’s competition for me and that sounds cocky but I seriously live in such an Eve world. And not in a crazy-everything-is-me-bubble, it’s just that I’m bulding an empire,” the 31-year-old says. “I go on Twitter and people say ‘Yo, knock Nicki Minaj out of the box, but ultimately we’re all helping each other and I’m happy seeing these chicks in the game. It’s too much testosterone. When I see another female, my immediate reaction is not ‘Oh I gotta go and get my shit right.’ I got 900 other things going on. I can’t keep worrying about what’s coming up behind me.”

Eve is currently working on her fourth album, Lip Lock, set to be released later this year. —Tracy Garraud

Women can sometimes be catty beings, but not R&B vixen Teairra Mari. The Detroit gal has nothing but love for her “Automatic” collaborator Nicki Minaj.

In an industry where female rappers can barely be counted on two hands, Mari had little to choose from when deciding which femcee to feature on her Jackpot Music-produced record. Yet, the songstress looked to Minaj because she was a devout fan. “I got Nicki on the song because I liked her,” she admits to Rap-Up.com. “I followed her YouTube videos, so I knew what she was about. When I heard ‘Automatic,’ I thought Nicki Minaj.”

The song’s writer, Rico Love, was unaware of who the Young Money star was at the time. “He didn’t know who I was talking about,” she says. “He was like, ‘Who?’ I showed him her videos on YouTube.” Originally, Love opted for another rapper to be on the track. “At first he wanted to get Trina or Lil’ Kim,” Mari reveals. “I love Trina and I love Kim as well, but I thought we should get a fresh girl and Nicki Minaj is hot.”

While many artists later jumped on the Barbie bandwagon, Mari called on her talents before she was a hot commodity. “This was before anything was really popular,” she continues, “because she’s been releasing music.”

“Automatic” featuring Lil Wayne’s protégée will appear on Teairra Mari’s sophomore album, At That Point, slated for a June release.

–Georgette Cline

SOURCE: Rap-Up.com