With a brash personal style mirroring her bold rhymes, rapper Nicki Minaj is a hip-pop superstar and the genre’s reigning female MC. Born Onika Tanya Maraj in 1982 in Trinidad and Tobago, she moved with her mother to New York at the age of 5. She started her music career in 2007 with a series of mixtapes, signing with Young Money Entertainment and being a popular cameo performer on other artists’ tracks. With her debut album, 2010’s ‘Pink Friday,’ and its ubiquitous single, ‘Super Bass,’ she embarked upon chart domination: Minaj became the first female artist in history to have seven songs on the Billboard Hot 100 all at once. She parlayed her pop-culture popularity with a controversial one-season judging gig on ‘American Idol’ in 2012 and a fledgling film career with a role in 2014's ‘The Other Woman.'
Selected discography: ‘Beam Me Up Scotty’ (2009), ‘Pink Friday’ (2010), ‘Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded’ (2012)
Related artists: Lil Wayne, Drake, Rick Ross
Further reading: Top 10 Nicki Minaj Songs, Nicki Minaj’s Sexiest, Steamiest Selfies, Top 10 Songs Featuring Nicki Minaj