After a six-year hiatus, Nicki Minaj dropped her highly anticipated fifth studio album, Pink Friday 2, giving barbs the perfect project to close out the year. Dropping the project on her 41st birthday, it spoke volumes to how far she’s come as she was just 27 years old when Pink Friday dropped, stamping her a powerhouse in Hip-Hop.
According to Forbes, “Pink Friday 2 [opened] at No. 1 with 228,000 equivalent album units. That sum includes 92,000 pure purchases, but the title really succeeded best on streaming platforms.” In her verse on “FTCU,” the third track from the project, Minaj raps “spotify ain’t gotta’ lie, they really streamin’ my music,” which rings true as “the songs featured on the new project earned nearly 170 million plays on Spotify.”
Being considered the “Queen of Rap” by many because of her unique and animated flow, heavy-hitting punchlines and wordplay, there’s really no question why she’s seen as a leader of the pack– and with the recent commercial success of her latest project, we can’t help but to take a look back at how she got to where she is and how she’s grown as not only an artist but a person as well.
Career Beginnings
After having been briefly signed to the group Full Force where she was a part of a quartet called the Hoodstars, Minaj signed onto the Brooklyn label, Dirty Money Entertainment in 2007 where she and CEO of the label, Fendi, developed the stage name ‘Nicki Minaj,’ “my real name is Maraj. Fendi flipped it when he met me because I had such a nasty flow!”
From 2007 – 2009, she released a mixtape every year, ultimately helping her gain traction as she received favorable attention from many different outlets like BET and MTV, and even landed her the opportunity that skyrocketed her to stardom. The Trinidadian born rapper was discovered by Lil Wayne and ended up signing with Young Money Entertainment. That following year, she went on a feature run, collaborating with artists like Robin Thicke and Mariah Carey making her the “go-to girl for artists who wanted to add some skank to their tracks without sullying themselves in the process,” according to the Washington Post.
Debut album and more
When it came to being featured on songs, Nicki had a particular je ne sais quoi that couldn’t be matched or beat and she proved this with her verse on Kanye West’s “Monster,” which also featured Jay-Z and Rick Ross. To say her verse on “Monster” put her on the map would be an understatement. In 2013, Complex rated her verse as the number one best rap verse in the past five years.
The album notes for her debut album, Pink Friday, on Apple Music read “Nicki Minaj’s guest verse on Kanye West’s “Monster” established her as a gargantuan MC, but her debut album solidified her star,” in which we have to agree! Pink Friday, released in 2010, debuted at number two but later took the number one spot on the Billboard 200. The album went certified platinum less than a month after its initial release having sold 1 million units in the U.S., according to Rap-Up.
In 2012, Minaj released her second studio album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, marking her crossover appeal with the lead single being “Starships,” a venture into pop, she won ‘Best Female Video’ for the song in 2012 at the VMAs.
A woman that does it all…
2012 marked the start of Nicki’s acting career, first featuring in Ice Age: Continental Drift as the voice of Steffie, then in the live-action theatrical production of The Other Woman in 2014, again in 2016 when she starred in Barbershop: The Next Cut alongside Ice Cube and Cedric The Entertainer, and in 2019 when she voiced the character Pinky in The Angry Birds Movie 2.
In addition to diving into acting, Nicki faced some major shifts as her and longtime boyfriend, Safaree separated after nearly 11 years together. She then released her third album, The Pinkprint, in late 2014 which had fans speculating if the songs like “I Lied” and “Pills N Potions” were about their relationship.
A day before the release of her fourth album, the rapper launched her own radio show, Queen Radio. The project, Queen, debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and went certified platinum after having sold over 1 million units. “Barbie Dreams” and “Chun-Li” were some of the popular songs from the project with the latter having reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Marriage, Motherhood and Controversy
After a year of dating her childhood best friend, Kenneth Petty, the two married in 2019, Minaj once referred to Petty as the “Clyde to [her] Bonnie.” The pair fell under heavy scrutiny when news of Kenneth’s failure to register as a sex offender broke as a result of him having been convicted of attempted rape. In 2021, Jennifer Hough, the woman who Petty was convicted of attempting to rape, filed a suit against the couple, alleging that they “directly and indirectly intimidated, harassed and threatened [Jennifer Hough] to recant her legitimate claim that Defendant Petty raped her,” according to Rolling Stone. However, Hough dropped Minaj from the suit in January 2022.
In 2020, the rapper and her husband welcomed their first child together. She initially announced her pregnancy on Instagram in July and revealed that she birthed her son on September 30. While the baby’s birth name is still unknown, she often refers to him as Papa Bear. In an interview with Vogue, Nicki said “I look in my son’s face, and my whole soul lights up. He has no clue how nerve-racking it’s been for me to be a mother and an artist.” She revealed that another mother helped her find her way back to making music after the birth of her son as she had initially thought she would have to retire after having children.
The year following the birth of her son, Minaj suffered the loss of her father, Robert Maraj after he was struck by a hit-and-run driver while walking along the streets of New York, according to The Guardian. Nicki said in a letter penned to her fans that his loss has been the “most devastating” in her life.
Another Feature Run Before Pink Friday 2
At the start of 2022 and after a break from social media, Nicki went on to be featured on several commercially successful tracks such as Lil Baby’s “Do We Have A Problem?,” Coi Leray’s “Blick Blick,” Yung Bleu’s “Love in the Way,” and YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s “I Admit,” just to name a few.
During the first quarter of 2023, the Queen Barb announced that she launched her own record label, Heavy On It, during an episode of her Queen Radio show. She and New York rapper Ice Spice for a remix of Spice’s “Princess Diana.” This track became first ever released on Minaj’s label and boosted Minaj to become the first woman to reach most number ones on the Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs chart. She went on to snag more features from Sexxy Red’s “Pound Town 2,” and collaborations with Kim Petras on “Alone” and again with Ice Spice and euro-pop band, Aqua on “Barbie World” for the Barbie movie soundtrack.
To say Pink Friday 2 was long overdue would be an understatement. In addition to it being her first album in six years, the project was initially set to be released on October 20 but was first rescheduled to drop November 17 before being pushed back again and finally being released on December 8.
Having only been out for a little over a month, Pink Friday 2 is already giving Nicki bragging rights. “With a third No. 1 on the Billboard 200, Minaj breaks out of a tie with Foxy Brown for the most leaders among female rap artists. Minaj is also the first female rapper with No. 1 albums in two different decades, as she logged her first two leaders in the 2010s, and her third came in the 2020s,” according to Billboard. The 22-track record garnered the largest sales week for a female rap album, according to Rolling Stone. “Its vinyl sales are also impressive, with 25,000 copies, marking the largest week for a rap LP by a woman since Luminate began tracking sales electronically in 1991,” the publication reported.
In support of the album, Nicki will be embarking on the Pink Friday 2 World Tour on March 1 in Oakland, CA and will end in Berlin, Germany on June 7. In addition to her own tour, the “FTCU” rapper will be headlining Rolling Loud California in March.
She is up for two nominations at the 2024 Grammy Awards Ceremony for ‘Best Rap Song’ and ‘Best Song Written for Visual Media’ for “Barbie World.”
The post From Pink Friday to Pink Friday 2: The Evolution of Nicki Minaj appeared first on American Urban Radio Networks.
