There’s no how-to-guide or written rule book of how to survive the music business, but Nicki Minaj is figuring it out one day at a time.
In 2010, MTV and famed Total Request Live producer Dave Sirulnick offered fans the opportunity to get to know Nicki Minaj the rapper. Four years and two albums later, MTV and Dave are introducing fans to the woman before the fame – Onika Maraj.
No longer hiding behind the colorful wigs or flamboyant costumes, Nicki Minaj makes a conscious effort to leave her alter ego Roman Zolanski, his mother, and all the other characters running rampant in her mind at the door.
Tired of being “fake happy” and guarded, the 32-year-old rapper strips down, opens up, and takes viewers on an emotional journey through the making of her third studio album The Pinkprint.
The 60-minute documentary is full of highs and lows, and opens up with a lighthearted scene in which Nicki Minaj is discussing “Anaconda” rehearsals and receives a phone call about a new song she’s featured on. After asking #TheBarbz what time they’d prefer the song to premiere on Twitter, she quickly gets back to business as her longtime boyfriend Safaree stands behind her just barely making the camera’s shot.
Despite being a rapper, Nicki’s pretty good with mastering technical choreography. Her choreographer Casper Smart, known for being Jennifer Lopez’s old bae, praises Nicki for picking up on the choreography so fast.
When in rehearsals, Nicki is fun and assertive. She knows what she wants and how she wants it, and offers constructive criticism to her background dancers. “Get hood with it,” she says. “Don’t be afraid to mean mug.”
Then there are laugh-out loud funny moments where Nicki visits the grandmother of her best friends Tyesha and Iesha in Queens, New York. As Nicki kicks back and reminisces with grandma about the good ol’ days, a producer asks grandma what she really thinks of Nicki Minaj’s music. She likes Nicki’s music, but doesn’t “appreciate” when she curses excessively. A typical response from any adult over 50.
Nicki laughs off the critique and brings up the time grandma told her mother about her spending the night over a boy’s house. Grandma still stands by her decision. “You told a story on me. I had to tell your mother,” she says.
The heartwarming moments continue when Nicki visits the old nail salon she frequented back in the day. Owned by a middle-aged Asian couple, Joy and Simon, Nicki got a manicure and reminisced about shooting a music video there when she was just a mixtape rapper. Before leaving, she attempts to give Joy and Simon a wad of hundred dollar bills, Joy denies her gift. “Let me pay you…please,” Nicki chuckles.
Joy and Simon insist on their services being free. Instead, they just want an updated picture of her to replace the one they took years back. Before leaving the salon, Nicki sneaks and leaves the wad of cash on the manicure station.
While there were plenty of moments of Nicki Minaj being the funny, charming woman we’ve grown to love, the documentary also depicts moments of Nicki struggling to sort through life’s trials and tribulations.
Despite reports of her staging a wardrobe malfunction at the MTV VMAs during her performance with Jessie J and Ariana Grande, Nicki vehemently denies she would “steal” another woman’s moment for her own selfish glory.
What the documentary uncovers is Nicki Minaj and her stylist Rushka Bergman had a mere 40 seconds to switch outfits. In sheer darkness, a completely naked Nicki Minaj pulled the dress up, but when a member of her team went to zip up the dress – nothing. The zipper on the black bodycon dress had failed, and producers were yelling in her headset that she must go on stage “now” or potentially ruin the performance.
Although she appeared to keep her composure, Nicki admits she was freaking out inside. After the performance, an annoyed Nicki Minaj sat backstage worrying if Jessie J was mad at her. There was even a moment when she stared off in the distance, replaying the malfunction over and over again in her mind, before a tear slowly rolled down her face.
But there’s a bright side to Nicki’s wardrobe malfunction. The cringe-worthy moment earned her a phone call from the queen herself, Beyonce, who gave her words of encouragement. Nicki recalled Beyonce telling her, “I gained so much respect for you, for the way you handled that.”
There was also a scene where Nicki and her engineer Aubry “Big Juice” Delaine were reviewing the final version of her album. All was well until Juice played her the final mix of her deeply personal song, “The Crying Game.”
As the song blared through the speakers, Nicki struggled to keep it together. She eventually found herself on a couch crying uncontrollably.
Throughout the hour-long special, Nicki continued to revisit the idea of family, including the family she missed out on with Aaron – her high school sweetheart.
The Pinkprint features a song titled “All Things Go” where Nicki recalls getting an abortion after Aaron got her pregnant.
“We made a terrible mistake,” she admits. “We had to pay for it.”
Even though she couldn’t be a mother to “Caiah,” the name she had chosen for her unborn child, Nicki still dreams of being a wife and a mother. “I feel like there’s a housewife inside me somewhere,” Nicki said. “I want to breastfeed and make my husband happy.”
The documentary ends with Nicki vowing to discover the inner workings of Onika Maraj, love, and not stressing over those who aren’t willing to embark on the journey alongside her.
“If I only see my friends and family four or five times a year…what is this all for?” she asks.
Nicki knows the answer.
It would be for nothing. Nothing at all.
Catch the enlightening documentary for yourself this Sunday, January 18 at 10 p.m. EST on MTV.
PHOTO CREDIT: MTV | VIDEO SOURCE: MTV
