Soon, she began writing her own material. Early Careerĭetermined to make it in the music business, Minaj took on backup singing roles for local New York City rappers, including Full Force. But her acting career didn’t take off, and she took up a range of steady jobs, including waitressing at Red Lobster, where she was fired for being rude to customers. At the age of 12, she authored her first rap, then went on to delve into acting at LaGuardia High School of Music and Art, the school that inspired the movie Fame. Minaj clearly had a knack for performance. An early incarnation was 'Cookie,' then came 'Harajuku Barbie' before finally settling on Nicki Minaj.

To reach that point, the young Minaj developed personas for herself that would allow her to reinvent herself. I thought, 'If I'm successful, I can change her life.'' 'I've always had this female-empowerment thing in the back of my mind,' she told Details magazine, 'because I wanted my mother to be stronger, and she couldn't be. Those early struggles, Minaj has said, helped fuel her drive to rise above the life her parents knew. At one point, he set fire to the family's home in a failed attempt to kill Minaj's mother. Minaj's father was a severe drug addict with a long history of violence. Minaj was born Onika Tanya Maraj on December 8, 1982, in Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago, and moved with her family to Queens, New York, when she was 5 years old. Nicki will go down as one of the best to do it in the history of music.” Early Life Her label-mate Lil Wayne calls her “an icon” who has “reached far beyond anything I would have imagined. Born in the Caribbean, Nicki Minaj moved to New York as a 5-year-old and has overcome a difficult childhood to become a successful hip-hop artist.

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