Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty, born December 8th, 1982, in Trinidad & Tobago, is known professionally as Nicki Minaj. Minaj gained fame as a rapper and singer, through Lil Wayne and her former group, 'The Hoodstarz'. As a musician, Minaj was recognized for her musical versatility, alter egos, and the animated flow of her raps.
She first gained underground attention after releasing her debut mixtape, Playtime Is Over. Two more mixtapes. Sucka Free and Beam Me Up Scotty, followed before her debut studio album, Pink Friday. The acclaimed album sold over 375k copies in its first week, the second-highest first-week sales for a female rap album. Maraj is one of the best-selling artists with over 100 million records sold among her extensive discography. Minaj has two diamond-certified singles, Bang Bang and Superbass. Superbass is her best-selling single to date being twelve times certified platinum, the highest certified solo single by a female rapper. Billboard staff ranked Minaj as the top-selling female rapper of the 2010s and one of the greatest rappers of all time. Maraj has the most number-one albums (Pink Friday, Pink Friday … Roman Reloaded, and Pink Friday 2) and top-ten songs (23) in the United States for a female rapper. In 2017, Maraj broke the record for the most entries on the Billboard Hot 100 by any female recording artist, surpassing Aretha Franklin. Later in 2018, Nicki became the first female artist to surpass 100 entries on the Billboard Hot 100. She has nine music videos with more than one billion views on YouTube, Minaj became the first female rapper to do so. These videos are Side to Side, Bang Bang (Both with over 2 billion views), Swalla, Tusa, Hey Mama, Beauty and a Beat, Anaconda, FEFE, and Super Bass.
