Nicki Minaj

Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty, born on December 8, 1982 in Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago, and raised in Jamaica, Queens, New York, is professionally known as Nicki Minaj. She first worked as a waitress at the Red Lobster restaurant in the Bronx, New York, before gaining recognition in the underground scene with the release of her first mixtape, *Playtime Is Over*.

Her breakthrough came in 2010 with her debut studio album *Pink Friday*, which sold over 375,000 copies in its first week. The album made her the first female solo artist to place seven singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously. Her career is marked by strong musical versatility, the use of alter egos, and an animated flow in her raps.

With more than 100 million records sold, she is among the best-selling artists. Her singles Super Bass and Bang Bang are certified diamond. Super Bass is her best-selling single, certified twelve-times platinum, making it the most-certified solo single by a female rapper. She holds the record for the most entries by a female artist on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming in 2018 the first to surpass 100 entries.

Billboard ranked her as the best-selling female rapper of the 2010s and one of the greatest rappers of all time. She has the most number-one albums (*Pink Friday*, *Pink Friday … Roman Reloaded*, and *Pink Friday 2*) and the most top-ten songs (23) in the United States for a female rapper. Nine of her music videos, including Side to Side, Anaconda, and Super Bass, have surpassed one billion views on YouTube, making her the first female rapper to achieve this feat, tied with Rihanna.

Her Pink Friday 2 World Tour (also called the Gag City Tour), her fourth solo tour, ran from March 1 to October 11, 2024 across three continents for 79 dates. It was the most extensive tour of her career and her first in North America in nine years. With opening acts by Monica, Bia, Tyga, and Skillibeng, it grossed more than $108.8 million over the first 70 shows, becoming the highest-grossing tour by a female rapper and the fourth-highest-grossing tour in rap or hip-hop history. The tour also faced controversies, including the cancellation of a show in Amsterdam following an arrest for drug trafficking and the cancellation of a show in Romania.