Biography nicki minaj life story youtube

1982-present

Who Is Nicki Minaj?

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.

Her label-mate Lil Wayne calls her “an icon” who has “reached far beyond anything I would have imagined. Nicki will go down as one of the best to do it in the history of music.”

Early Life

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.

Biography nicki minaj life story youtube full

Minaj's father was a severe drug addict with a long history of violence. At one point, he set fire to the family's home in a failed attempt to kill Minaj's mother. Those early struggles, Minaj has said, helped fuel her drive to rise above the life her parents knew.

"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