Nicki Minaj's rise to the top of the music pile has been seen before. But the speed in which she got to the top of the pile is what is amazing. She is loved by fans, the media and the fashion world has adopted her. Vogue profiles the hip hop star, looking back at her Trinidadian roots to her schooling at the prestigious LaGuardia high school for the performing arts.
In an astonishingly short period of time, Minaj has been nominated for three Grammy Awards (Best New Artist, Best Rap Album, and Best Rap Performance), named the 2011 Rising Star by Billboard magazine, and garnered Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist and Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Album honors at the American Music Awards for her 2010 debut, Pink Friday. (Her second album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, is scheduled to be released imminently.) Her appeal extends far beyond her legions of young female fans—whom she calls not her “little monsters” but her little sisters—to adults captivated by the unexpected cadences of her raps and the raw honesty of her words. Given her strong sartorial, and rhetorical, proclivities, Minaj would seem to prefer a riotous, club kid–ish catwalk show. But here she is at Carolina Herrera (“so regal and special”) and at de la Renta (he has been known to watch her videos on YouTube). Then again, why wouldn’t this wildly individualistic performer, whose five-year plan includes an autobiography, a stack of Grammys, and movie stardom, defy assumptions? It isn’t the first time. Minaj discovered the power of costume when she dressed as Freddy Krueger for the “My Chick Bad” video with Ludacris two years ago. “It made me feel so free. It was me inside.”
