Nicki Minaj, who's the real you?
Will the real Nicki Minaj please stand up?
Life for the 29-year-old pop/rap sensation must be a confusing experience, her persona a dollhouse with various rooms, populated by a bunch of wacky characters.
In one room sits Minajs real self: 29-year-old Trinidad and Tobago-born, Queens-bred Onika Tanya Maraj.
In the other we find her gay alter ego Roman Zolanski, one of the main characters from her two albums Pink Friday and Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, whom Minaj has described as a lunatic and sometimes a demon.
Zolanskis mom Martha is also in that strange dollhouse somewhere, a character Minaj personifies with a fake British accent on songs such as album opener "Roman Holiday."
Then theres Minajs long-standing Harajuku Barbie, a soft-spoken doll character that explains why Minaj addresses her fans as Barbz.
Along the way at one point or another there were also Spanish Rosa (pronounced Rrrrrosa), Nicki Teresa (a Mother Teresa figure) and Nicki Lewinsky (you get the idea).
If keeping track of Minajs multiple personalities is a trying experience, just imagine being Minaj.
Fantasy-driven escape has often been the refuge of the neglected child, and Minajs difficult upbringing may partly explain her desire to step into someone elses shoes.
Having moved from Trinidad and Tobago to Queens Jamaica neighbourhood when she was five, Minaj grew up around domestic violence and a father battling crack and alcohol addiction, and she devoted much of her time to imagining she was a different person.
The fantastical has always been at the core of the Nicki Minaj experience.
Her music is a glitchy, sparkly mashup of hip-hop, dance and party electronica, and her lyrics are heavy on metaphors, most of which involve being tough and in control. The multiple characters, whether Oniki, Nicki, Roman or the colourful Harajuku Barbie (note: Minaj is also now available as a real Barbie doll), allow her to switch back and forth between Jamaican,! British and American accents and from meekish squeals to visceral growls.
Minajs persona is larger-than-life and involves a cartoonish image and a voluptuous, over-the-top figure and bottom rumoured to have been surgically altered.
In her mind, she was born to become the saviour of rap, as she once declared in an interview long before she became an international sensation.
It is now increasingly difficult to disagree with Minajs grandiose assertion, as she is the only female rap artist to be headlining a major tour, the Pink Friday Tour, which wrapped in Vancouver Sunday.
In a world dominated by male egos, Minaj has become a powerhouse, and she has often stolen the show from her male counterparts: Her cataclysmic verse on Kanye Wests "Monster," for example, has been hailed as one of the boldest moments on Wests masterpiece My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and she has also stolen the spotlight on albums by Ludacris and Drake.
(West famously stated at one point that Minaj had the potential to become the No. 2 rapper in the world, the top always being Eminem.)
Discovered by rap superstar Lil Wayne after she released a series of mixtapes in 2007, Minaj was signed to a major deal with his Young Money Entertainment label in 2009.
Minaj proved herself a shrewd and savvy business person when she ensured her unique label deal would allow her to retain full control of her music rights, including publishing, merchandising, sponsorships and touring.
Thanks to singles like the chart-busting "Super Bass," Pink Friday had sold more than 1.7 million copies worldwide as of February. Her sophomore album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, which topped the charts in several countries including Canada upon its release in April, amped up Minajs cruder side with songs like "Come On A Cone" and the controversial "Stupid Hoe."
The latter, the closing song on the album where Minaj declares herself the female Weezy (the female equivalent to Lil Wayne), ! is a trac! k where Minaj confronts her female haters with a verbal onslaught that is almost as seizure-inducing as the songs Bratz-dolls-on-acid video. (The video broke the record for most views in 24 hours when it was released online in January).
Still, the album is better known for crossover pop/rap hit "Starships" and the carnival-esque, Trinidad and Tobago-inspired "Pound The Alarm," which quite obviously target a younger demographic.
And thats Minajs true secret weapon and double-edged sword: She is just as comfortable doing voice-over work for Ice Age: Meltdown as she is tearing her detractors a new one on Roman Reloaded.
Her doll-like appearance on Ellen, where she teamed up with a couple of eight-year-olds to do a cover of "Super Bass" last year (a video that has been viewed close to 40 million times on YouTube), is a sharp contrast to her more barb-wired rhymes and the kind of Gaga/Madonna-esque, shock-worthy display she concocted for the Grammy Awards earlier this year, where she performed dressed as a nun confessing her sins, with chanting monks and a fire-and-brimstone levitation number.
On the one hand you have people saying, We want her to be hard and raunchy and explicit, and on the other hand theres, Nicki Minaj, would you stop swearing for the children, please? she said in a recent interview with British newspaper The Guardian. Its like, what dyou want me to be? How many different people can I f---ing be?
Quite a few, it seems.