Playtime has been over for Nicki Minaj since she hustled her way to the top as hip-hop’s premiere female emcee.
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The always vibrant Nicki Minaj knew she was going to be a star when she was a kid, but who could have predicted a little Trini girl from Jamaica, Queens would be Grammy nominated for Best New Artist.
Over the past five years, Nicki Minaj has hustled her way front and center as the most relevant female artist in hip-hop. Since 2007, Nicki knew that playtime was over if she wanted to change music. So she buckled down and linked up with fellow New York rappers Red Cafe, Hell Rell, and Murda Mook to put out her mixtape Playtime Is Over. But it was when she linked up with New Orleans rapper Lil Wayne that the door to her hip-hop success began to open.
Of course the mainstream success didn’t come overnight, after releasing Sucka Free and Beam Me Up Scotty, Nicki Minaj became one of the most talked about underground rappers of late 2008/early 2009.
After seeing the critical success of Nicki’s Beam Me Up Scotty mixtape, Lil Wayne decided to offer Ms. Minaj a deal to become the premiere lady of his new label Young Money.
Nicki hopped right into the studio, and soon put out “Massive Attack” featuring Sean Garrett. “Massive Attack” was set to be her debut album Pink Friday’s first official single, but after little commercial success, Nicki went back to the drawing board.
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Nicki soon released “Your Love” and “Right Thru Me,” which were smash hits on Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs chart.
Nicki eventually released Pink Friday, which sold an astounding 375,000 copies its first week, making Nicki the second highest selling female hip-hop artist behind Lauryn Hill’sMiseducation Of Lauryn Hill.
Still on a high from her commercial success, Nicki dropped three more singles “Roman’s Revenge,” “Did It On’ Em,” and her most popular single to date, “Super Bass.”
Ever since then, Nicki’s been on a whirlwind. From touring to scoring major deals with OPI nail lacquer and MAC makeup, to gracing the covers of fashion mags all around the world, Nicki has caught the attention of many industry’s innovators, including The Academy. Nicki is nominated for three Grammy Awards this year for “Best New Artist,” “Best Rap Album,” and “Best Rap Performance.”
Nicki’s definitely up against a tough group of artists, but hopefully her Barbie-licious swag and witty rhymes will help her crush the competition.
Nicki is currently up against Bon Iver, J.Cole, Skrillex, and The Band Perry for this year’s “Best New Artist” category.
Will Nicki Minaj be able to score a win at this year’s Grammys? We’ll see this Sunday, February 12 at 8 p.m. on CBS.
