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When it comes to legendary women rappers in the game, Nicki Minaj has to be close to the top of the list (If she isn’t at the top). Onika Maraj was born in Trinidad and Tobago. She lived there with her grandmother until the age of five when she moved to South Jamaica, Queens. After graduating from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts (which focuses on visual and performing arts), Minaj wanted to be an actress. In fact, she was cast in the Off-Broadway play
In Case You Forget in 2001. Unfortunately, she struggled with her acting career and worked countless jobs to make money.
After a short stint with Brooklyn group Full Force and another with Brooklyn label Dirty Money Entertainment, Nicki released her first mixtape,
Playtime Is Over on July 5th, 2007. Her second and third mixtapes,
Sucka Free and
Beam Me Up Scotty were released the following two years. After being discovered by Lil Wayne, she ended up signing a recording contract with Young Money Entertainment in 2009. She spent the next year murdering her verses on features with artists such as Jay-Z, Robin Thicke, Mariah Carey and Yo Gotti to name a few. The run she went on led up to her releasing her debut studio album
Pink Friday on November 19th, 2010. The album debuted at number two and later reached number one on the
Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 375,000 copies. It had the highest sales week for a woman’s rap album this century and second highest sales week overall after Lauryn Hill’s
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998). Less than a month after its release, it was certified platinum making it the first album by a solo woman rapper to go platinum in seven years.
Minaj followed up
Pink Friday with four more albums (
Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (2012),
The Pinkprint (2014),
Queen (2018) and
Pink Friday 2 (2023)). The Queen of Rap, as she’s commonly referred to as, has become one of the best-selling music artists (She’s already the best-selling woman rapper of all time), with more than 100 million records sold worldwide. She became the first woman artist to have one hundred
Billboard Hot 100 entries and has twenty-three top 10 hits on the Hot 100, the most for any woman rapper. Over her years, she has amassed nine American Music Awards, eight MTV Video Music Awards (including the 2022 Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award), thirteen BET Awards, five
Billboard Music Awards, a Brit Award and three Guinness World Records.
As decorated as Nicki’s personal resume is, she’s never shied away from extending a helping hand. Or in this case, a helping verse. Throughout her illustrious career, the Harajuku Barbie has laced some of her peers with the stimulus package that is a Nicki Minaj 16. To celebrate Women’s History Month and honor her legacy, check out a playlist of the best feature verses of Nicki Minaj’s career. Slide in the comments and let us know which ones are your favorites and if we forgot any!
