Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty, known professionally as Nicki Minaj, is a Trinidadian-born rapper, singer, and songwriter based in the United States. Often referred to as the "Queen of Rap", she is known for her musical versatility, animated flow in her rapping, alter egos, and influence in popular music. She first gained recognition after releasing three mixtapes between 2007 and 2009.
Minaj's debut album, Pink Friday (2010), topped the US Billboard 200 chart; its single "Super Bass" reached number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and was certified diamond by the RIAA. Follow-up album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (2012) explored dance-pop and debuted atop the Billboard 200, with its lead single "Starships" peaking in the top five of charts internationally. Her third album, The Pinkprint (2014), explored personal topics and marked a return to her hip hop roots. Its lead single "Anaconda" peaked at number two on the Hot 100 and became the first music video by a solo female rapper to reach one billion views on YouTube. Minaj released her fourth album Queen in 2018, which spawned the US top ten single "Chun-Li". In 2019, her collaboration with Karol G, "Tusa", became the longest-running number-one single on the Argentina Hot 100 chart. Minaj has been featured on various songs and achieved her first two Hot 100 number-one singles in 2020 with the collaborations "Say So" (with Doja Cat) and "Trollz" (with 6ix9ine). In 2022, she achieved her first solo number-one with "Super Freaky Girl", the lead single from her upcoming fifth studio album Pink Friday 2 (2023).
Minaj is one of the best-selling music artists, with more than 100 million records sold worldwide. Billboard ranked her as the top selling female rapper of the 2010s and one of the greatest rappers of all time. She has twenty-three top 10 singles in the US, the most for any female rapper, with six of those being solo songs. Her various accolades include eight American Music Awards, five MTV Video Music Awards (including the 2022 Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award), twelve BET Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, a Brit Award, three Guinness World Records and twelve Grammy nominations. Outside of music, her film and television career has included voice roles in the animated films Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) and The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019), supporting roles in the films The Other Woman (2014) and Barbershop: The Next Cut (2016) and being an American Idol judge. In 2016, Time included her on their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Throughout her career, Minaj's outspoken views, social media disputes and her fanbase have received significant media coverage.
