Nicki Minaj Biography

This Nicki Minaj biography condenses her immense meteoric collision with the music industry - bringing color, confidence and charisma. Overcoming everything from domestic adversity to bias against female rappers - Nicki got busy. The biography of Nicki Minaj is all action and adveture, without any sign of over-night success.

From Trinidad to Queens The blockbuster biography of Nicki Minaj begins with her birth on December 8th, 1984 in St. James, Trinidad and Tobago. Before she became "Minaj", she was "Maraj" - born Onika Tanya Maraj. Her parent's ancestry is Indo and Afro-Trinidadian. Nick Minaj moved to Queens, New York at age five, and was raised there ever since.

Fantasy Over Reality Even with a new home in the Queens borough of the "city that never sleeps," it would be Nicki who couldn't sleep due to domestic disputes. Her father struggled with alcohol and a crack addiction. According to Nicki Minaj, her father once went to the extent of attempting to kill her mother by setting fire to their home. Her painful world of reality became replaced by a much friendlier fantasy life to creatively heal her damaged feelings. One look at her ever-changing fashion statements and her musical alter-egos including "Roman Zolanski" are proof that her early imagination continued to serve her well.

Nicki York City Nicki Minaj's talent was cultivated at the LaGuardia High School in New York City where she graduated after studing acting and singing. This is the same high school that was used as the basis for the television show "Fame." After a stint as a freelancing background singer for local rap groups, Nicki knew she was destined for center stage and began writing her own raps. After being discovered on Myspace and signed to an underground recording label called Dirty Money, Nicki Minaj got the attention of Lil Wayne from a DVD performance - leading to her signing to his Young Money record label.

 Thank God It's Pink Friday After numerous quest appearances with the likes of Ludacris, Robin Thicke, and Kanye West, Nicki Minaj's debut album "Pink Friday" was released on November 19, 2010, in time for the start of the holiday shopping season. Nicki's sonic earthquake of dizzying detail for the dance floor went beyond platinum-selling status. When Minaj's "Pink Friday" spent its fourteenth week on the Top 10 of Billboard's 200, it set a record for having the most consecutive weeks on this list by a female rap album. What is most amazing is that this is just the beginning for Nicki Minaj.