Hello and welcome back to this week’s famous Friday this week we will be talking about award-winning singer/rapper Nicki Minaj.
Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty Professionally known as Nicki Minaj was born on December 8, 1982, in Trinidad. To her mother Carol who is of Afro-Trinidadian descent and her father Robert who is of South Indian descent.
From her debut album to her newly rekindled fame after the popularity of a song of hers that was included in the Barbie Movie, her music never disappoints.
In her most recent musical creations, she collaborated with Ice Spice and the European band Aqua on the song “Barbie World” which debuted with the movie.
Along with being in the recent news, Minaj has received many awards for her previous albums. Throughout her career, she has received 10 Grammy awards and in 2010 she became the first solo female artist to have seven songs on Billboard Hot 100. That very same year she also became the first woman to appear on MTVs annual Hottest MC List and has been the only woman to receive the Best Female Hip Hop Artist award seven consecutive times.
Outside of her career she also focuses a lot of philanthropy work. In 2010 Minaj and Katy Perry performed a cover of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” during the VH1 Divas Salute the Troops concert. Along with this in 2011 she patented with Mattel to create a Barbie in her own likeness to action for an organization that would donate money towards people affected by HIV and AIDS.
The following year in 2012, Minaj donated 15,000 to the Food Bank for New York City. More recently in 2020, she donated 25,000 dollars to the St. Jude’s Home for Girls school after visiting it in Trinidad, her country of origin. Minaj encouraged these girls to continue pushing through their obstacles and work hard towards their goals and references specific instances in her life when she had to do the same previous to her life before stardom. As of this year Minaj continues to be an example throughout her community and help others in need.
Photo Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicki_Minaj
By: Anna Garrison VP of Project Race Teens