Nicki recently sat for an interview with BILLBOARD Magazine to promote PINK FRIDAY dropping on November 22.

On her last job:

“The last job I had was as an office manager in a little, tiny room where I literally wanted to strangle this guy because he was so loud and obnoxious,” Minaj recalls. “I would go home with stress pains in my neck and my back. That’s when I went to my mother and said, ‘Look, I’m not going back to work.’ I’d been fired like 15 times because I had a horrible attitude. I worked at Red Lobster before that and I chased a customer out of the restaurant once so I could stick my middle finger up at her and demand that she give me my pen back. I swear to God I was bad.”

On being a NY rapper:

“When I started rapping, people were trying to make me like the typical New York rapper, but I’m not that,” Minaj says. “No disrespect to New York rappers, but I don’t want people to hear me and know exactly where I’m from. I wanted the album to be universal and versatile. It really feels like it speaks for every one of my personalities.”

On getting respect in a male-dominated field:

“When I do songs like ‘Monster,’ when I’m on a record with Jay-Z and Kanye West, when I’m on a record with Wayne and Em — I definitely think the dudes give me respect,” Minaj says. “They haven’t come easy but I think people are starting to give me more props.”

On “Your Love”:

Although first official single “Your Love” reached No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, the track wasn’t even meant to be released.

“I didn’t like the song and I didn’t put it out,” she says. “Someone stole it out of the studio and put it on the Internet and I cried because I was mortified. I was humiliated and remember telling Drake, ‘This is going to ruin my career.’ ”

On her work ethic:

“I push people around me but I don’t push anyone more than I push myself,” she says. “I tell people all the time, ‘You want to work for me? You have to give 250,000%,’ because when I’m in the booth, I don’t half-ass it. I demand perfection from everyone around me and if you can’t live up to that, then bye-bye.”

( CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SCANS IN THE GALLERY )

Check out scans of Nicki Minaj from the recent “Black Men’s Magazine” October/November issue by clicking the thumbnails above. Thanks to reader Stu for sending them in!

Young Money’s cash chick tells us a thing or two
BY KELLEY L. CARTER

FIRE-RED WIG ASIDE, DOES IT GET ANY HOTTER RIGHT NOW THAN NICKI MINAJ?
By now, you’ve heard her animated vocals on a club banger and, at the very least, wondered just who this 25-year-old female rapper/singer thinks she is. We chat with her right before she puts the finishing touches on her debut album, Pink Friday, due in November, and find out.

ON WHY SHE’S SO HOT RIGHT: People gravitate toward good music. And l like to think that he majority of what I’ve put out falls into that category.

ON WHY SHE WEARS THOSE COLORFUL WIGS: You can be a new person every day. That’s how I feel. I feel like when I change my hair, I’m a different person.

ON WHY SHE KEEPS IT –KIND OF- CLEAN: My fans seem to get younger and younger. So it’s very important for me to speak to a child differently than I would speak to an adult. And when all a child can hear is your music and see the way you dress, that’s the only thing you can really use to kind of steer [him or her] in the right direction. So I toned it down a bit. The music will always remain authentic. So taking out a few curse words every now and then doesn’t make you less credible of a rapper.

ON MEETING LIL WAYNE, HER BOSS: It was nerve-racking. I was very nervous. I wanted to postpone it as long as possible. He’s very intimidating. But it was a great meeting. We spoke for hours and when I walked out of that meeting. I didn’t know if I got the gig to be a part of Young Money. But I did feel like I’d just met an icon, and that was good enough for me.

ON HER BIGGEST FEMALE RAP INFLUENCE: Lauryn Hill. She really changed my life. She probably changed millions of lives around the world. But she changed my life on a music aspect.

ON WHY SHE LOVES MIXTAPES: That’s the only route I could take. I didn’t have an option. What do you do when you don’t have a major behind you, and you know that you have skills and you’re talented and you want the world to hear you? You put it on a mixtape. It’s all about taking you destiny into you own hands.

ON WHAT’S SHOCKED HER MOST ABOUT FAME: How judgmental people can be. That’s the biggest thing. It’s almost like people act like they’re perfect and it makes them feel better to put you donw. That’s the only shocking part. I always knew there’d be jealousy and envy. I guess that doesn’t change, even in the real world, so to speak. There’s jealousy and envy when you’re doing better than people. But I was taken aback by it. It was very shocking in the beginning.

ON WHAT DATING IS LIKE FOR HER NOW: I don’t date guys. I hang out with my girls. They’re sexier, anyway, and they’re more fun. And less needy.

Source: MyPinkFriday.com

( CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE SCANS IN THE GALLERY )

Word Up! Magazine does another tribute to Nicki Minaj and Drake in their November 2010 issue.

Source: MyPinkFriday.com

NICKI MINAJ
OCCUPATION: Rapper/Singer
BASED IN: Los Angeles
NICKI’S IT GIRL: Her alter-ego Roman Zolanski

Trinidad-born, New York-raised rapper Nicki Minaj, 25, has dropped guest rhymes on tracks by Jay-Z, Kanye West, Usher, Ludacris, and Sean Kingston. Now she’s finally striking out on her own with her debut album, Pink Friday (due November 23rd). Any girl who drives a pink Lamborghini, has a crew of alter-egos, and dresses like a self-described “Harajuku Barbie” is solid gold in our books.

YOUR PERFORMANCES ARE EXTREMELY THEATRICAL, HAVE YOU ALWAYS BEEN DRAWN TO DRAMA?
Absolutely, I don’t want to do it if it’s not creative. I studied acting for four years, so I definitely bring my acting training into my music and my performance.

DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONAL STYLE.
Kooky, colorful, and cocky.

WHO ARE YOUR INFLUENCES?
Any female rapper that you can think of: I could find something in them that I feel is really, really positive and really connects with me. I definitely looked up to Salt-N-Pepa when I was younger, I love their attitude, I love their facial expressions, I love their wardrobe, I love their voices, I love their records.

HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED ANY CRAZY FANS?
I’ve run into people with tattoos of me or my name on their body – people I’ve never met before in my life. Sometimes as an artist you think, Am I really getting through to people? And I think seeing that reassures me that I am making a mark and that I am connecting.

WHAT’S YOUR CURRENT OBSESSION?
Recently I’ve been wearing these big straw hats. I started wearing them because I was going to an amusement park and it was going to be really sunny and I kind of wanted to be incognito, but they just look so cute. They’re perfect for bad hair days.

WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG, WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GREW UP?
A bus driver, I was eight years old.

WHAT WOULD PEOPLE BE SURPRISED TO KNOW ABOUT YOU?
I like decorating homes. When I moved to L.A. people told me to hire an interior designer and I just refused to. Right now I’m going for an all-white theme so it looks like you just stepped into a scene from The Matrix. I should be walking around in a trench coat and you should be calling me Trinity.

Nylon Magazine in stores now.