Who is Nicki Minaj?
Danny Moloshok/Reuters Nicki Minaj, as herself.
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 seeming dollhouse with various rooms, populated by a bunch of wacky characters.
In one room sits Minajs real self: the Trinidad and Tobago-born, Queens-bred Onika Tanya Maraj.
In another we find her gay alter ego Roman Zolanski, one of the main characters from her two albums Pink Friday and PinkFriday: 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 the Jamaica neighbourhood of Queens in New York City 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 mash-up of hip hop, dance and party electronica, and her lyrics are heavy on metaphors, most of which involve being tough and in control. Minajs persona is larger-than-life and involves a cartoonish image and a voluptuous, over-the-top figure.
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 wraps 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.
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 amped up Minajs cruder side with songs like Come On A Cone and the controversial Stupid Hoe.
Still, the album is better known for crossover pop/rap hit Starships and the carnival-esque, Trinidad and Tobago-inspired Pound the Alarm, which obviously targets a younger demographic.
And thats Minajs secret weapon and double-edged sword: She is just as comfortable doing voice-over work for Ice Age: The Meltdown as she is tearing her detractors a new o! ne on
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?
Quite a few, it seems.