Hot 21 Radio

Nicki Minaj

Nicki Minaj is one of the most successful rappers in history, mixing hip-hop beats, pop hooks, and a unique vocal delivery into hits like "Super Bass," "Starships," and "Bang Bang." She was born on December 8, 1982, in St. James, Port of Spain, and left Trinidad at five years old in order to live with her mother in New York City. She started making mixtapes in her teens and won "Female Artist of the Year" at the 2008 Underground Music Awards. Her single "Massive Attack" created further interest as she became the subject of a major label bidding war before crossing into the mainstream with "Your Love," which sampled Annie Lennox's "No More I Love You's" and reached Number 14 on the US charts. Two years later, Minaj became the first female artist to top the Billboard Rap Chart in eight years, holding the top spot for eight weeks. This feat was followed by the debut album Pink Friday, which featured a popular collaboration with Eminem, "Roman's Revenge." Boosted by the popularity of her third album, The Pinkprint, and its lead single "Pills n Potions," she became the only artist to win the BET Award for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist for five consecutive years, as well as the first female artist to chart four songs simultaneously in the Top 10 of Billboard's Mainstream R&B Hip-Hop Chart. In 2017, she released the singles "No Frauds," Changed It," "Regret in Your Tears" at the same time and broke the record for the most Billboard Hot 100 entries for a female artist, a record previously held by Aretha Franklin. Her fourth album, Queen, was released in 2018 and debuted at Number 2 in America. Two years later, she appeared on a remix of Doja Cat's Grammy-nominated "Say So," which climbed to Number 1 on the Hot 100 and gave Nicki Minaj her first chart-topping pop hit. She returned to the same position later that year with "Trollz," then reissued one of her earliest mixtapes, Beam Me Up Scotty, in 2021. Led by "Seeing Green," a single featuring Drake and Lil Wayne, the mixtape debuted at Number 2 in America. Later that year, the single "Super Bass" from her studio debut Pink Friday was certified diamond by the RIAA, making her the second female rapper to ever achieve that feat. In August 2022, Minaj earned her third Number 1 hit on the Hot 100 with "Super Freaky Girl," one of several new tracks to appear on her greatest hits album, Queen Radio: Volume 1.