title: Wagner Group

text: BBC News and AFP said the circumstances of their deaths were unclear. According to the Interfax news agency, robbery could have been a motive. An expensive camera kit and more than 8,000 dollars disappeared from the scene, although three canisters of gasoline, which is considered a valuable commodity in the CAR, were left in the vehicle. A local official and their driver stated that the attackers were wearing turbans and speaking Arabic. Russian and CAR state media initially reported that the authorities suspected Seleka rebels to be behind the killings. According to local residents, interviewed by Khodorkovsky's investigators, around 10 people had camped out nearby before the ambush, waiting there for several hours. Shortly before the attack, they saw another car with "three armed white men … and two Central Africans" pass by. Per an initial report in "The New York Times", there was no indication that the killings were connected with the journalists' investigation of the Wagner Group's activities in the Central African Republic, but a follow-up article cited a Human Rights Watch researcher who commented that "Many things don't add up" in regards to the mysterious killings. It reaffirmed there was nothing to contradict the official version that the killings were a random act by thieves, but noted speculation within Russia that blamed the Wagner Group, while also adding a theory by a little known African news media outlet that France, which previously ruled the CAR when it was a colony, was behind the killings as a warning to Moscow to stay clear of its area of influence. Moscow-based defence analyst Pavel Felgenhauer thought it was unlikely they were killed by Wagner's PMCs, while the Ukrainian security service claimed that it had evidence about the PMCs involvement.


title: Wagner Group

text: During their investigation, the journalists tried to enter the PMCs' camp, but they were told that they needed accreditation from the country's Defense Ministry. The accreditation was previously only given to an AFP journalist who was still not allowed to take any photographs or interview anyone. The killings took place one day after the journalists visited the Wagner Group encampment at Berengo. According to Bellingcat's Christo Grozev, after the journalists arrived in the CAR, the Wagner Group's Col. Konstantin Pikalov issued a letter describing how they should be followed and spied on.


title: Wagner Group

text: In January 2019, it was revealed that, according to evidence gathered by Khodorkovsky's "Dossier Center", a major in the Central African Gendarmerie was involved in the ambush. The major was in regular communication with the journalists' driver on the day of their murders and he had frequent communications with a Wagner PMC who was a specialist trainer in counter-surveillance and recruitment in Central Africa. The police officer was also said to have attended a camp run by Russian military trainers on the border with Sudan, and maintained regular contact with Russian PMCs after his training. The investigation into the murders by the "Dossier Center" was suspended two months later due to lack of participation by government agencies and organizations.


title: Wagner Group

text: In July 2020, ahead of the country's presidential election, Belarusian law enforcement agencies arrested 33 Wagner contractors. The arrests took place after the security agencies received information about over 200 PMCs arriving in the country "to destabilize the situation during the election campaign", according to the state-owned Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BelTA). The Belarusian Security Council accused those arrested of preparing "a terrorist attack". The U.S.-funded Radio Liberty reported the contractors were possibly on their way to Sudan, citing video footage that showed Sudanese currency and a telephone card depicting Kassala's Khatmiya Mosque among the belongings of those who had been arrested. Others also believed the contractors were simply using Belarus as a staging post on their way to or from their latest assignment, possibly in Africa, with BBC News pointing out the footage of the Sudanese currency and a Sudanese phone card as well. Russia confirmed the men were employed by a private security firm, but stated they had stayed in Belarus after missing their connecting flight to Turkey and called for their swift release. The head of the Belarusian investigative group asserted the contractors had no plans to fly further to Turkey and that they were giving "contradictory accounts". The PMCs stated they were on their way to Venezuela, Turkey, Cuba and Syria. Belarusian authorities also said they believed the husband of opposition presidential candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya may have ties to the detained men and launched a criminal case against him. The detained contractors were returned to Russia two weeks later.


title: Wagner Group

text: During the contractors' detention, Russian media reported that the Security Service of Ukraine had lured the PMCs to Belarus under the pretext of a contract for the protection of Rosneft facilities in Venezuela. The operation's plan was to force an emergency landing of the contractor's plane from Minsk as it flew through Ukrainian airspace and, once grounded, the PMCs would have been arrested. Later, Russian president Putin also stated that the detained men were victims of a joint Ukrainian-United States intelligence operation. Although the Ukrainian president's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, denied involvement in the detentions, subsequently, a number of Ukrainian journalists, members of parliament, and politicians confirmed the operation. The operation was supposedly planned for a year as Ukraine identified PMCs who fought in eastern Ukraine and were involved in the July 2014 shoot down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. The operation failed after being postponed by the Office of the President of Ukraine, which was reportedly informed of it only in its final stage. Ukrainian reporter Yuri Butusov accused Andriy Yermak of "betrayal" after he reportedly deliberately released information on the operation to Russia. Butusov further reported that the Turkish intelligence agency MİT was also involved in the operation. The failure of the operation led to firings and criminal proceedings among Ukraine's Security Service personnel, according to a Ukrainian intelligence representative using the pseudonym "Bogdan". Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko also claimed in December 2020 that he sanctioned the operation at the end of 2018.


title: Wagner Group

text: Several days after Russian media reported that Russian PMCs were ready to fight against Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh, a source within the Wagner Group, as well as Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer, reported Wagner contractors were sent to support armed forces of the partially recognized Republic of Artsakh against Azerbaijan during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war as ATGM operators. However, Bellingcat reported that the Wagner Group was not present in Nagorno-Karabakh, pointing to the Reverse Side of the Medal (RSOTM) public channel, used by Russian PMCs, including Wagner. RSOTM posted two images and a song alluding to the possibility of Wagner PMCs arriving in Nagorno-Karabakh, but Bellingcat determined the images were unrelated.


title: Wagner Group

text: Following the end of the war, retired military captain Viktor Zlobov stated Wagner PMCs took a significant role in managing to preserve the territory that remained under Armenian control during the conflict and were the ones mostly responsible for the Armenians managing to keep control of the town of Shusha for as long as they did before it was ultimately captured by Azerbaijan during the major battle that took place. Turkey reported that 380 "blondes with blue eyes" took part in the conflict on the side of Artsakh, while some Russian publications put the number of Wagner PMCs who arrived in the region in early November at 500. 300 of these were said to have taken part in the Battle of Shusha and a photo of a Wagner PMC, apparently taken in front a church in Shusha during the war, appeared on the internet the following month.


title: Wagner Group

text: The Russian news outlet OSN reported the arrival of the PMCs was also one of the factors that led to Azerbaijan's halt of their offensive against Nagorno-Karabakh.


title: Wagner Group

text: Following more than six years of a Jihadist insurgency in Burkina Faso, a coup d'état took place on 23 January 2022, with the military deposing president Roch Marc Christian Kaboré and declaring that the parliament, government and constitution had been dissolved. The coup d'état was led by lieutenant colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba and came in response to the government's failure to suppress the Islamist insurgency, which has left 2,000 people dead and between 1.4 and 1.5 million displaced. Anger was also directed towards France, which was providing military support to the government.


title: Wagner Group

text: One day after the coup, Alexander Ivanov, the official representative of Russian military trainers in the CAR, offered training to the Burkinese military. Subsequently, it was revealed that shortly before the military takeover lieutenant colonel Damiba attempted to persuade president Kaboré to engage the Wagner Group against the Islamist insurgents. In addition, less than two weeks before the takeover, the government announced it had thwarted a coup plot, after which it was speculated that the Wagner Group might try and establish itself in Burkina Faso. The coup found significant support in the country and was followed by protests against France and in support of the takeover, with the protesters calling for Russia to intervene. The United States Department of Defense stated it was aware of allegations that the Wagner Group might have been "a force behind the military takeover in Burkina Faso" but could not confirm if they were true.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (; born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( ), is a Trinidadian-born rapper, singer, and songwriter based in the United States. She is known for her her musical versatility, animated flow in her rapping, alter egos and accents. Minaj is regarded as being the most influential female rapper of her generation and has been called the greatest female rapper of the 21st century.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Maraj first gained recognition after releasing three mixtapes between 2007 and 2009. Her debut album, "Pink Friday" (2010), topped the U.S. "Billboard" 200 chart. Its fifth single, "Super Bass", reached number three on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100 chart and was certified diamond by the RIAA. Minaj's follow-up album, "" (2012) explored dance-pop. The lead single, "Starships", peaked in the top five worldwide. Her third album, "The Pinkprint" (2014) explored more personal topics and marked a return to her hip hop roots. Its second single, "Anaconda" peaked at number two on the Hot 100 and became the first music video by a solo female rapper to reach one billion views on YouTube. She released her fourth album, Queen, in 2018 and it spawned the U.S. top ten single "Chun-Li". In 2019, her collaboration with Karol G, "Tusa", became the longest-running number-one single on the Argentina Hot 100 chart. Minaj achieved her first two Hot 100 number-one singles in 2020, "Trollz" and "Say So" and her third with the lead single of her forthcoming fifth studio album, "Super Freaky Girl". It became the second solo song by a female rapper to debut at number one in the U.S.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Referred to as the "Queen of Rap", Minaj is one of the best-selling music artists, with more than 100 million records sold worldwide. "Billboard" ranked her as the top selling female rapper of the 2010s. She became the first female artist to have one hundred "Billboard" Hot 100 entries and has twenty one top 10 hits on the Hot 100, the most for any female rapper. Her various accolades include eight American Music Awards, five MTV Video Music Awards (including the 2022 Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award), twelve BET Awards, four "Billboard" Music Awards, a Brit Award and three Guinness World Records. Outside of music, her film career has included voice roles in the animated films "" (2012) and "The Angry Birds Movie 2" (2019) as well as supporting roles in the films "The Other Woman" (2014) and "" (2016). In 2016, "Time" included her on their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Throughout her career, Minaj's outspoken views and social media disputes have received significant media coverage.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Onika Tanya Maraj was born on December 8, 1982, in the Saint James district of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Her father was Robert Maraj (1956–2021), a financial executive and part-time gospel singer of Dougla (Afro-Trinidadian mother and Indo-Trinidadian father) descent. Her mother, Carol Maraj, is also a gospel singer with Afro-Trinidadian ancestry. Carol worked in payroll and accounting departments during Minaj's youth. Minaj's father was addicted to alcohol and crack cocaine and had a violent temper, burning down their house in December 1987. She has an older brother named Jelani, a younger brother named Micaiah, and a younger sister named Ming.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: As a child, Minaj and her older brother, Jelani, grew up with her grandmother in Saint James in a household with 11 cousins. Minaj's mother, Carol Maraj, was working numerous jobs in Saint James before getting her green card at the age of 24. She then moved to the Bronx in New York City to attend Monroe College, leaving both Minaj and Jelani in Trinidad with their grandmother. Eventually, when Minaj was five, Carol got her first house, on 147th Street in South Jamaica, Queens and brought both Minaj and Jelani to live with her and their father. Minaj recalled, "I don't think I had a lot of discipline in my household. My mom motivated me, but it wasn't a strict household. I kind of wanted a strict household." Minaj successfully auditioned for admission to Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, which focuses on visual and performing arts. After graduation, Minaj wanted to become an actress, and she was cast in the Off-Broadway play "In Case You Forget" in 2001.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Minaj has revealed that she had an abortion as a teenager in her songs "All Things Go" and "Autobiography". She has said that although it has "haunted" her, she stands by her decision. At the age of 19, as she struggled with her acting career, she worked as a waitress at a Red Lobster in the Bronx, but was fired for discourtesy to customers. She said she was fired from "at least 15 jobs" for similar reasons. Other jobs included customer service representative and office management on Wall Street. Minaj recalls buying a BMW as a 19-year-old with the money from waitressing.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Minaj briefly signed with Brooklyn group Full Force, in which she rapped in a quartet called The Hoodstars composed of Lou$tar (son of "Bowlegged Lou"), Safaree Samuels (Scaff Beezy) and 7even Up. In 2004, the group recorded the entrance song for WWE Diva Victoria, "Don't Mess With", which was featured on the compilation album "". Minaj later left Full Force and uploaded songs on her Myspace profile, sending several of her songs to people in the music industry. Later, Fendi, CEO of Brooklyn label Dirty Money Entertainment, signed Minaj to his label in 2007 under a 180-day contract. Originally adopting the stage name Nicki Maraj, she eventually changed it to Nicki Minaj stating that "my real name is Maraj. Fendi flipped it when he met me because I had such a nasty flow!"


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Minaj released her first mixtape, "Playtime Is Over", on July 5, 2007, and her second, "Sucka Free", on April 12, 2008. She released her third mixtape, "Beam Me Up Scotty", on April 18, 2009; it received favorable coverage on BET and MTV. At the time, she was managed by Debra Antney. One of its tracks, "I Get Crazy", reached number 20 on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot Rap Songs chart and number 37 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. After Minaj was discovered by fellow rapper Lil Wayne, she signed a recording contract with his Young Money Entertainment. That November, she appeared with Gucci Mane and Trina on the remix of "5 Star Bitch" by Yo Gotti.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In early February 2010, Minaj made her first two appearances on the U.S "Billboard" Hot 100 chart with her features on "Knockout" and "Up Out My Face" by Lil Wayne and Mariah Carey respectively. Minaj also appeared on "BedRock" and "Roger That" on the compilation album, "We Are Young Money" (2009). The singles peaked at numbers two and 56, respectively, in the U.S. Their parent album reached number nine on the U.S. "Billboard" 200, and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). At Jay-Z's suggestion, Robin Thicke featured Minaj on his single "Shakin' It 4 Daddy". Allison Stewart of "The Washington Post" stated that, during that time, she "became the go-to girl for artists who wanted to add some skank to their tracks without sullying themselves in the process". Minaj became the first female solo artist to have seven singles simultaneously charting in the U.S.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: On March 29, 2010, Minaj released "Massive Attack" featuring Sean Garrett. Intended as the lead single from her forthcoming debut album, "Pink Friday", the song was dropped from the album due to poor commercial performance. The next single, "Your Love", later became the album's lead single. Released in June, it peaked at number 14 on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100 and number one on the Rap Songs chart. In September, Minaj released "Check It Out" featuring will.i.am and "Right Thru Me" as follow-up singles.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In October, Minaj was featured on Kanye West's "Monster", a posse cut with Jay-Z and Rick Ross featuring vocals from Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. Her verse received widespread acclaim with many critics regarding it as the best verse on that song. "Complex" rated Minaj's "Monster" verse as the number-one best rap verse in the past five years, while Sean Fennessey of "The Village Voice" stated that "Monster" was "the track that announced Minaj's "brilliance" to most people." Shortly after, she performed "Monster" with West and Jay-Z at Yankee Stadium, becoming the first ever female rapper to perform there. In November 2010, Minaj received her first Grammy Award nomination for her guest verse on Ludacris' song "My Chick Bad".


title: Nicki Minaj

text: "Pink Friday" was released on November 19, 2010, debuting at number two and later reaching number one on the "Billboard" 200, with first-week sales of 375,000 copies. It had the highest sales week for a female rap album this century and second highest sales week overall after Lauryn Hill's "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" (1998). Upon release, the album received generally positive reviews from critics. The album was certified platinum in December, with it becoming the first album by a solo female rapper to go platinum in seven years. "Moment 4 Life" featuring Drake was released as the fourth single from "Pink Friday" shortly after the album's release. The song served as the third single off the album, released as a single on December 7, 2010. Minaj performed "Right Thru Me" and "Moment 4 Life" as the musical guest on the January 29, 2011, episode of "Saturday Night Live".


title: Nicki Minaj

text: "Super Bass", the album's fifth single, was released in April 2011. It became a sleeper hit and commercially successful, ultimately peaking at number three in the U.S. and was eventually certified octuple-platinum in the U.S. Super Bass was the highest charting solo single by a female rapper since Missy Elliott's "Work It" in 2002. The music video has 925 million views on YouTube as of March 2022. Early in her career, Minaj identified as bisexual and made several references to it in her music. However, she eventually stated in a 2010 "Rolling Stone" interview, "I think girls are sexy, but I'm not going to lie and say that I date girls." She once again addressed her sexuality in 2020 on Doja Cat's "Say So" remix. The lyrics divided members of the LGBT community, with some accusing her of "bisexual erasure" while others voicing there is nothing wrong with originally identifying as bisexual, and then later identifying as straight.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Minaj was one of the opening acts on Britney Spears' 2011 Femme Fatale Tour. She and Kesha appeared on the remix of Spears' "Till the World Ends", which peaked at number three in the U.S. On August 7, 2011, Nicki experienced a wardrobe malfunction during a live performance on "Good Morning America" when she revealed her left nipple. Both ABC and Minaj apologized for the incident, with Minaj denying it was a publicity stunt. Minaj continued to perform at high-profile events throughout 2011 with Donatella Versace inviting her to perform with Prince for the introduction of a Versace collection for H&M. She also performed "Super Bass" at the 2011 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. In July 2011, her cousin Nicholas Telemaque was murdered near his home in Brooklyn, an incident she later references in her songs "All Things Go" and "Champion". In December 2011, Minaj was nominated for three Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist and Best Rap Album for "Pink Friday". Also that year, she won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Hip-Hop Video for "Super Bass", marking her first VMA win.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: "Starships" was released in February 2012 as the lead single from Minaj's forthcoming second album "". The song reached number five on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100, and went on to become the fifth best-selling single of 2012. Her crossover into pop music was criticized by some, despite her commercial success. Follow-up singles "Beez in the Trap" featuring 2 Chainz and "Right by My Side" featuring Chris Brown were released shortly after.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: "Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded" was eventually released on April 2, 2012, two months later than initially planned. The album was preceded by the promotional singles "Roman in Moscow" and "Stupid Hoe". The album debuted at number one on the "Billboard" 200, with first-week sales of 253,000 copies, and was certified platinum by the RIAA in June 2012. However, the mix of hip-hop songs and mainstream pop material received mixed reviews. "Pound the Alarm" and "Va Va Voom" were later released as the final singles from the album. Minaj along with fellow rapper M.I.A. joined Madonna to perform the single, "Give Me All Your Luvin" during the Super Bowl XLVI halftime show on February 6, 2012. Minaj was the first solo female rapper to perform at the Grammy Awards, performing "Roman Holiday" during the 2012 ceremony on February 12. Her exorcism-themed performance was controversial, with the American Catholic League and its president criticizing her performance.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Minaj began her headlining Pink Friday Tour on May 16, 2012, which was followed by the beginning October 14, 2012. Although she was scheduled to headline the June 3 Hot 97 Summer Jam at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, at the request of Lil Wayne she canceled her appearance the day of the show after Peter Rosenberg of the station dismissed her single "Starships" as "not real hip-hop". The following month, she voiced Steffie in the animated film "" (2012). Minaj won awards for Best Female Video (for "Starships") at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards and Best Hip-Hop at the 2012 MTV Europe Music Awards.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: An expanded version of "Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded", subtitled "", was released on November 19, 2012, with seven new songs. That month, she was the subject of a three-part E! documentary titled "Nicki Minaj: My Truth". In September, Minaj joined the judges' panel for the twelfth season of "American Idol" with Mariah Carey, Keith Urban, and Randy Jackson. Throughout the show there were disagreements between Carey and Minaj, with both of them leaving the series at the end of the season.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Minaj's first live-action theatrical film "The Other Woman" was filmed in spring 2013 and premiered on April 25, 2014. In late 2014, Minaj separated from her longtime boyfriend Safaree Samuels, whom she had dated since 2003. According to Minaj, he had proposed to her, but she declined. Several tracks on her forthcoming third album, "The Pinkprint", are believed to have been heavily inspired by the end of their relationship. Minaj began dating rapper Meek Mill in early 2015, shortly after her breakup with Samuels. As she was working on "The Pinkprint," she described the album as "a continuation of "" with a lot more" and said it would focus on her "hip hop roots". During an MTV interview, she additionally said that it would be "next level" and that she has "much to talk about".


title: Nicki Minaj

text: "Pills n Potions" was released as the lead single from "The Pinkprint" in May 2014. In July, she appeared as a featured artist on the song "Bang Bang" with singers Jessie J and Ariana Grande, which peaked at number three on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. "Anaconda" was released in August as the second single from the album, peaking at number two, which became her highest-charting single in the U.S. at the time. The music video for "Anaconda" went viral upon release online; it set a 24-hour Vevo record, accumulating 19.6 million views on its first day of release, breaking the record previously held by Miley Cyrus for "Wrecking Ball". On November 9, 2014, Minaj hosted the 2014 MTV Europe Music Awards in Glasgow, Scotland. She also won the Best Hip-Hop Award for a second time. "The Pinkprint" was officially released on December 15, 2014, and debuted at number two in the U.S, with first week sales of 244,000 equivalent units (198,000 in pure album sales and 46,000 combined album-equivalent units and streams). Upon release, critics praised the production and personal lyrics.At the 58th Grammy Awards, Minaj received three more Grammy Award nominations, including a second Best Rap Album nomination for "The Pinkprint", a Best Rap Song nomination for "Anaconda" and a Best Pop Duo/Group Performance nomination for "Bang Bang". In March 2015, Minaj embarked on her third world tour entitled The Pinkprint Tour and also became the first female artist to chart four songs simultaneously in the top 10 of "Billboard"s Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop airplay chart. At the 2015 BET Awards, Minaj won her sixth consecutive award for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist, becoming the female rapper with most wins in that category. In August 2015, Madame Tussauds unveiled a wax figure of Minaj, which depicted a pose from the "Anaconda" music video. The attraction received criticism from some, including Angharad Welsh of "The Independent", who called it "a sexist, racist mistake". Despite this, Minaj voiced her approval of the wax figure on social media.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In May 2015, it was announced that Minaj would feature in the third installment of the "Barbershop" film series, alongside Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, Eve, and other original cast members. Titled "", the film was released on April 15, 2016. For Minaj's performance as a "sassy" hairdresser named Draya, she was nominated for a Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress: Comedy. In September 2015, it was announced that Minaj would executive produce and appear in a scripted single-camera comedy series for ABC Family (now Freeform) based on her life growing up in Queens, New York City. The show was titled "Nicki" and the pilot episode was filmed in Minaj's hometown in January 2016. In October 2016, Minaj stated the filming was postponed for undisclosed reasons.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In February 2017, Minaj was featured on Jason Derulo's single "Swalla" which reached the top ten in several countries, including a peak of number six in the UK. The following month, Minaj signed with the major modeling agency, Wilhelmina Models. On March 20, 2017, when her singles "No Frauds", "Changed It", and "Regret in Your Tears" were released simultaneously, Minaj broke the record for the most "Billboard" Hot 100 entries for a female artist, which at the time was previously held by Aretha Franklin. In May 2017, Minaj opened the 2017 "Billboard" Music Awards with a medley performance that was described by Elias Leight of "Rolling Stone" as "flamboyantly produced" and "dexterous". Throughout the remainder of 2017, Minaj performed guest verses on several singles, including Migos' "MotorSport" and Yo Gotti's "Rake It Up", both of which peaked inside the top ten in the U.S. at numbers six and eight, respectively. She also featured on Katy Perry's "Swish Swish", which was certified platinum in the US and Canada. In January 2017, she announced that she had ended her relationship with Meek Mill. Shortly after, she briefly dated fellow rapper Nas in 2017 before they broke up in January 2018.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: After a social media hiatus, Minaj released two singles from her fourth studio album "Queen." She released "Chun-Li" and "Barbie Tingz" simultaneously on April 12, 2018, with both reaching number ten and number twenty-five in the U.S. respectively. She performed "Chun-Li" on "Saturday Night Live" and the 2018 BET Awards. While "Chun Li" appears on the tracklist of the album, "Barbie Tingz" is only included on the Target version of the album. On the red carpet of the 2018 Met Gala, she announced the title of the album and the original release date. The second single, "Bed", featuring Ariana Grande was released on June 14, 2018, alongside the album pre-order, reaching number 42 on the Hot 100. Additionally, Minaj appeared as a featured artist on the song "Fefe" along with Murda Beatz and Tekashi 6ix9ine. It debuted at number four in the U.S, marking Minaj's highest debut on the chart at the time, besting the sixth place start of "Bang Bang" in 2014. It later peaked at number three and was added to "Queen" in the middle of its first tracking week. The day before the album's release, Minaj launched her own Beats 1 radio show, "Queen Radio"."Queen" received multiple delays before finally being released on August 10, 2018. It debuted at number two on the US "Billboard" 200 with 185,000 album-equivalent units, of which 78,000 came from pure album sales. It also debuted at number five in the UK and at number four in Australia, marking Minaj's highest debut in the latter country. Minaj later expressed frustration and criticized several people including Travis Scott, whose album "Astroworld" claimed the top spot for a second week in a row, blocking "Queen" from the top spot. Minaj alleged that Travis Scott sold shirts, merchandise, and ticket passes for an unnannounced tour to boost his album sales. This controversy and "Queen" roll-out was documented by several news outlets and commentators. "Queen" received generally positive reviews, with some critics deriding the album's length and direction. The album was certified Platinum by the RIAA in January 2019, for moving over 1 million equivalent units.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Minaj performed at the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards where she also won her fourth MTV Video Music Award for the "Chun-Li" music video. The same month, she featured on the remix of "Idol" by South Korean boy band BTS. It debuted and peaked at number eleven in the U.S. which was the group's second highest charting song at the time. She also featured on the song "Woman Like Me" by British girl group Little Mix, which was released on October 12, 2018. A music video was shortly released after, with Minaj and Little Mix later performing the song together at the 2018 MTV Europe Music Awards. She was also featured on "Dip" by American rapper Tyga which reached number sixty-three in the U.S. making her the first female artist to have 100 entries on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. She later attended the year-end "Billboard" Women in Music event, receiving the Game Changer Award for the accomplishment.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In September, Minaj co-headlined the annual Made in America Festival and suffered another wardrobe malfunction when the front of her outfit fell open. In November, she was invited to the DWP music festival in China but did not perform due to problems with the company hosting the event. The next year in April 2019, Minaj made a surprise guest appearance at the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival during Ariana Grande's set where they performed their collaborations "Side to Side" and "Bang Bang". However, she experienced technical difficulties with her earpiece. Later that month, Minaj parted ways with her longtime management team after a mutual agreement, with American entertainment executive Irving Azoff serving as her new manager.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In June 2019, Minaj released a standalone single titled "Megatron" along with an accompanying music video. In the U.S, the song debuted at number twenty. A month later, she provided information on her upcoming fifth studio album, appearing on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon", stating that "there's definitely a new album, of course." She featured on the song "Hot Girl Summer" alongside fellow female rapper Megan Thee Stallion in August 2019, which reached number eleven in the U.S. Minaj began dating her childhood friend Kenneth Petty (nicknamed "Zoo") in December 2018, and after less than a year of dating, filed for a marriage license in August 2019. She announced that they had officially married in October, hyphenating his last name to hers upon marriage. Minaj had a voice role as Pinky in "The Angry Birds Movie 2", which was released in August 2019. In November, Minaj appeared on the "" on the song "Bad To You", along with Ariana Grande and Normani, marking her sixth collaboration with Grande. Minaj also collaborated with Colombian singer Karol G on the song "Tusa", which was released to streaming platforms on November 7. The song reached forty-two in the U.S. and reached the top of many other charts including the "Hot Latin Songs" chart, which made it the first song with two lead female artists to debut in such position. "Tusa" later became the longest-running number one single in Argentina, spending five months on the top of the chart.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In January 2020, Minaj was featured on "Nice to Meet Ya" by American singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor. The song is from the latter's third studio album, "Treat Myself" (2020). In February, she released a standalone song called "Yikes" as a promotional single. By the end of that month, Minaj appeared as a guest judge on the twelfth season's premiere of the reality television show "RuPaul's Drag Race". In March, her husband Kenneth Petty was entered into the California Megan's Law database after he was charged for failing to register as a sex offender after he relocated to California. Petty had been convicted of attempted rape in New York and had served nearly four years in prison for it. For this new charge, he was sentenced to one year of house arrest and a fine of $55,000 USD in 2022.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In May, fellow rapper Doja Cat announced a collaboration with Minaj on two remixes of her song "Say So". The remix later debuted at number one on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100, becoming both Minaj and Doja Cat's first single to reach number one in the U.S. It became the all-female collaboration that had reached number one in the U.S. since "Fancy" by Australian rapper Iggy Azalea featuring English singer Charli XCX did it in 2014. It marked the first time that a song by two female rappers reached the top, for which Guinness World Records later gave them an award. A month later, she released a collaboration with 6ix9ine called "Trollz", which debuted at number one in the U.S. becoming Minaj's second number one single. This made Minaj the first female rapper to debut at number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100 since Lauryn Hill did so in 1998 with "Doo Wop (That Thing)". The song dropped to number 34 in its second week, at the time breaking the record for biggest fall from number one in the U.S.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In July, Minaj announced via Instagram that she was expecting her first child. She gave birth to a son on September 30, 2020, whom she refers to publicly as "Papa Bear". His real name is still unknown. She later collaborated with rappers ASAP Ferg and MadeinTYO on a song called "Move Ya Hips". Almost a month later, Minaj featured on rapper Ty Dolla Sign's track "Expensive". She continued to appear as a featured artist on several songs in late 2020, and released "What That Speed Bout!?" with producer Mike Will Made It and rapper YoungBoy Never Broke Again on November 6. On the 10th anniversary of her debut album "Pink Friday" (2010), Minaj announced a six-part docuseries about her, produced by Bron Studios and was originally said to premiere on HBO Max. However, in 2022, the streaming platform confirmed it dropped the still-unreleased project.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: The next year in February 2021, Minaj's father, Robert Maraj, died while walking along a road on Long Island in a hit-and-run accident. Charles Polevich, a 70-year-old man, was charged as the suspect of Maraj's death. Polevich was arraigned and charged with two felonies, which were leaving scene of incident involving death of a person and tampering with or suppressing physical evidence. Three months later, she commented on her father's death in a letter, saying, "[..] it has been the most devastating loss of my life. I find myself wanting to call him all the time, more so now that he's gone. [...] May his soul rest in paradise. He was very loved & will be very missed."


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In May 2021, Minaj released a reissue of her mixtape "Beam Me Up Scotty" (2009), including new songs previously unavailable on streaming services. The reissue debuted at number two on the U.S. "Billboard" 200, which gave it the highest debut for a female rap mixtape in the U.S. A song from the reissue, titled "Seeing Green" featuring fellow "Young Money" rappers Drake and Lil Wayne reached number twelve in the U.S. and appeared in the mid-year "Best Hip Hop Songs of 2021 (so far)" critics list by magazine "HipHopDX". Minaj's verse on "Fractions" from the reissue appeared on the mid-year "Best Rap Verses of 2021 So Far" critics list from "Complex". In July, Minaj collaborated with fellow rapper Bia on the remix of her song "Whole Lotta Money". The remix appeared on several "Best Songs of the Year" lists from publications such as "Rolling Stone" and "NPR".


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In August, her husband's victim (named Jennifer Hough) filed a lawsuit against Minaj and Petty for alleged harassment and intimidation. She later gave an interview about the accusations on the daytime talk show "The Real". While Minaj has not publicly commented on the lawsuit, she addressed the accusations in a case filing: "I never asked [Hough] to change her story, I never offered her any money in return for a statement, and I did not threaten her with any type of harm if she chose not to provide a statement." Hough later voluntarily dropped the case against Minaj, with her lawyers claiming "jurisdictional issues" and telling a judge that it was going to be refiled in California. Minaj's lawyer countered their claims, saying that the refiling was a "friviolous gambit to avoid sanctions" and that "their claims received an aggresive response." Hough's initial claim of refiling the case was in January 2022.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In September, Minaj collaborated with English singer-songwriter Elton John's fifth collaboration album "The Lockdown Sessions" (2021). She appeared on the song "Always Love You" with John and rapper Young Thug. Later that month, she split with her previous manager Irving Azoff and is now being managed by Wassim Slaiby, also known by his management company SALXCO, who is best known for managing The Weeknd and Doja Cat. Furthermore, English singer Jesy Nelson released her solo debut, called "Boyz", which Minaj features on. The song peaked at number four in the UK and number sixteen in Ireland. In October 2021, Minaj appeared as a surprise host for the season six reunion of the reality television show "The Real Housewives of Potomac". In November 2021, her 2011 "Pink Friday" single "Super Bass" received a Diamond certification by the RIAA, making her the second solo female rapper to receive a diamond certification. Minaj won the Best Hip Hop award in the MTV Europe Music Awards 2021, becoming the sixth time she has won this award.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: At the beginning of the year, after a social media hiatus, Minaj announced a song collaboration with rapper Lil Baby called "Do We Have a Problem?". The track was released on February 4, along with a music video that featured guest appearances from actors Joseph Sikora and Cory Hardrict. The video also contained a snippet of another Lil Baby collaboration titled "Bussin", which was officially released a week later, on February 11. "Do We Have a Problem?" debuted and peaked at number two on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot 100. It became Minaj's twentieth top ten entry in the U.S, extending her record as the female rapper with the most U.S. top ten singles. In a promotional Apple Music interview with DJ Zane Lowe, Minaj said her forthcoming fifth studio album is "coming very soon". She described it as "fun, gutta, and back to the basics". Her other ventures also include fronting the campaign for the "Heaven" Spring 2022 collection by Marc Jacobs, which launched on March 3.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In March, Minaj collaborated with fellow rapper Coi Leray on a song titled "Blick Blick", from the former's debut studio album, "Trendsetter" (2022). Prior to the song's release,she revealed that her verse was almost scrapped due to American rapper Benzino (who is also Coi Leray's father) leaking the collaboration. Later that month, she surprise-released the standalone single "We Go Up" featuring rapper Fivio Foreign. The drill track was initially teased on Minaj's social media as a scrapped song from her album, before fans had requested her to release the song. The next month, Minaj appeared on English television host James Corden's "Carpool Karaoke" segment, kickstarting its returning broadcast on "The Late Late Show with James Corden" after a two-year hiatus. After that, she was named the new creative director of American men's magazine "Maxim" and became the new global ambassador and advisor for "MaximBet", a sports betting brand launched by "Maxim." She also came along on board as a stakeholder.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In early July, Minaj did several live performances by headlining the 2022 Essence Music Festival in New Orleans and the 2022 Wireless Festival in London. The same month, she posted a snippet of a song on social media that samples American singer Rick James's 1981 song, "Super Freak." On July 22, she announced that the full track would be released on August 12. She revealed the song's title as "Super Freaky Girl" and the accompanying cover art for the song. On July 28, 2022, she released a two-minute trailer of her upcoming six-part docu-series titled "Nicki", produced by Canadian production company Bron Studios. After its initial release, "Super Freaky Girl" also received an additional extended version called the "Roman Remix", which features the return of her alter ego Roman Zolanski. "Super Freaky Girl" debuted at number one in the U.S, making the song Minaj's third U.S. number one and her first unaccompanied number one. It became the first solo song by a female rapper to debut at number one in the U.S. in 22 years, after fellow rapper Lauryn Hill's song "Doo Wop (That Thing)" also debuted at number one in 1998. On August 28, 2022, Minaj released a compilation album called "" with one new track, "Likkle Miss (Remix)" with Skeng. On September 9, 2022, Minaj released a remix of "Super Freaky Girl" called "Queen Mix", which features 5 other female rappers: JT, BIA, Katie Got Bandz, Akbar V, and Maliibu Miitch. On September 12, 2022, Yung Bleu released his single "Love in the Way" featuring Minaj with video released on September 19. On October 6, 2022, Minaj and Skeng released a remix of "Likkle Miss" called "THE FINE NINE REMIX" featuring Spice, Destra Garcia, Patrice Roberts, Lady Leshurr, Pamputtae, Dovey Magnum, Lisa Mercedez, and London Hill. On October 21, 2022, rapper YoungBoy Never Broke Again released a collaboration with Minaj titled "I Admit".


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Minaj is known for her animated rapping style and "unique" flow. Her rapping is distinctive for its speed and the use of alter egos and accents, primarily British cockney. She often both sings and raps in her songs, and has made use of metaphors, punch lines, and word play. The alter egos are incorporated with her lyrics in British accents (Roman Zolanski) or soft-spokenness (Harajuku Barbie). Ice-T said about Minaj's rapping style, "[Minaj] does her thing. She has her own way of doing it. She has an ill vocal delivery. She kind of reminds me of a female Busta Rhymes, like how she throws her voice in different directions."


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Jon Caramanica of "The New York Times" called Minaj "a sparkling rapper with a gift for comic accents and unexpected turns of phrase. She's a walking exaggeration, outsize in sound, personality and look. And she's a rapid evolver, discarding old modes as easily as adopting new ones." Although many critics describe her technique as bubblegum rap, Minaj said: "What people don't know is that before I was doing that craziness I was doing me, I was just doing regular sounding rap that anyone could hear and identify with. But once I started doing all that weird shit—I'm not mad at it because it got everyone's attention." Robby Seabrook III of XXL included Minaj in list of "most unique flows from rappers over the last five years", saying that she "has solidified her spot as a leader of the pack for her animated flows, inspiring many other women in hip-hop to play with their vocals. She goes from campy to bellicose, excited to eccentric, oftentimes all on one song."


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Noted as a rap artist, she also occasionally lends herself to electronic music genres (especially electropop). "Pink Friday" marked her exploration of the genres, spawning electro songs including the pop-laden "Super Bass". Also combining rap with synthesizer music, Minaj's second album, "Pink Friday Roman Reloaded", had a number of electro-hop and electro pop songs: "HOV Lane", "Whip It", "Automatic", "Come on a Cone", "Young Forever", "Fire Burns", "Roman Holiday", "The Boys" and "Beez in the Trap"; while "Starships" is a eurodance song.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Her verse on Kanye West's "Monster" was critically acclaimed and contributed greatly to her popularity; many critics said she had the best verse in the song. West claimed at one point he considered deleting her verse from the track, because he was worried it would outshine his own work:


title: Nicki Minaj

text: It was like that moment when I thought about taking Nicki's verse off of 'Monster' because I knew people would say that was the best verse on the best Hip Hop album of all time or arguably top ten albums of all time. And I would do all that work, eight months of work on "Dark Fantasy" and people to this day would say to me 'My favorite thing was Nicki Minaj's verse'. So if I let my ego get the best of me instead of letting that girl get the shot to get that platform to be all she could be, I would take it off or marginalize her, try to stop her from having that shining moment…


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Tara Colley of "The Conversation" described Minaj as a "pre-eminent female rapper" and that she has "consistently straddled the distinct personas of gangsta boss and sexy pop siren without truly committing to either" and that "her chameleonic ability" matches "some of rap's most verbose, witty, filthy and pop-friendly" stars such as Eminem and Lil Wayne. Zoe Johnson of "XXL", stated that in recent years Minaj's "beat selection has moved to refined production full of grit and hip-hop flare in recent years".


title: Nicki Minaj

text: With her parents frequently fighting during her childhood, Minaj lived through characters she created as a means of escape. She recalled that "fantasy was my reality" and her first identity was Cookie, who became Harajuku Barbie and (later) Nicki Minaj. In November 2010, Minaj assumed the alter ego Nicki Teresa, wearing a colorful headdress and calling herself "healer to her fans" during a visit to the Garden of Dreams Foundation at Fuse Studios in New York. She introduced another alter ego, Rosa (pronounced with an exaggerated "R"), to commemorate her December 2010 appearance on "Lopez Tonight".


title: Nicki Minaj

text: One of Minaj's most well-known alter-egos is "a demon inside her" named Roman Zolanski (named after film director Roman Polanski with modified surname), Minaj's "twin brother", whose character she assumes when she is angry. Roman has been compared to Eminem's alter ego Slim Shady, and on "Roman's Revenge" Minaj and Eminem collaborate as their alter egos. On her next album, she said that there would be a lot of Roman: "And if you're not familiar with Roman, then you will be familiar with him very soon. He's the boy that lives inside of me. He's a lunatic and he's gay and he'll be on there a lot." Roman has a mother, Martha Zolanski, who appeared on "Roman's Revenge" with a British accent and singing on "Roman Holiday" for the first time. Martha appeared in the "Moment 4 Life" video as Minaj's apparent fairy godmother.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Minaj cites Lil Wayne, Foxy Brown, and Jay-Z as major influences: "I can't even imagine my career, um, my creative spirit without Wayne. [...] I feel like I'm still intertwined with him creatively." Minaj has called Lil Wayne her mentor and credited him with discovering her. On Foxy Brown and Jay-Z, Minaj said: "I really loved [Foxy] as a female rapper. I was really interested in her mind and her aura [and] I was really, really into Jay-Z. Me and my friends in high school, we were reciting all of the Jay lyrics. His words were our words in our conversations all the time." She said, further: "I never really told Foxy how much she has influenced me and how much she changed my life" adding that Foxy Brown was "the most influential female rapper" for her. Minaj said in a "T Magazine" interview in 2017: "Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Foxy Brown... [...] Those are the three I keep in my head when I'm writing because they've influenced me so much, [...] I feel like I'm a part of all of them."


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Jada Pinkett Smith is one of Minaj's role models in her acting career. Minaj was inspired by R&B singer Monica, singing "Why I Love You So Much" at every talent show she entered. While performing in Atlanta as part of her Pink Friday Tour, she called Monica one of her all-time greatest musical influences. Lauryn Hill is also one of Minaj's major influences, with Minaj quoting her lyrics in a high school yearbook. Minaj has also cited Madonna, Enya, Eminem, Beyoncé, Kanye West, Trina, Drake, Remy Ma, and Lil' Kim as influences.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: She called Betsey Johnson a fashion inspiration: "[Betsey] is a free spirit. When I met her the other day, I felt like I knew her for my whole life. She's so warm and considerate and caring. She's amazingly talented and I've been wearing her clothes forever, so to meet her was like, 'Yay!' [I was] bowing down to her; she's dope!" Minaj has also expressed appreciation for Cyndi Lauper's style and how her videos inspired her as a teenager: "When I first went to get my hair colored, I was about 14 and I wanted blonde highlights. The beautician said, 'No, you have to get your mother on the phone,' and I was just crying and begging. I've always been experimenting. Cyndi Lauper's videos – that's what intrigued me."


title: Nicki Minaj

text: "Billboard" listed Minaj the fourth-most-active musician on social media on its March 2011 Social 50 chart. Minaj is also the most followed rapper on Instagram with over 200 million followers, the first to surpass that number, as well as one of the most followed female musicians on the social media platform. On Twitter, she is one of the most followed rappers, with over 26 million followers on the app, as of September 2022. She joined "American Idol" as a judge in 2013. BET has named Minaj as a "gay icon". Minaj was a vocal proponent of streams counting towards an artist's RIAA certifications. The organization later announced in 2016 that it would be modernizing the certification process for albums, including on-demand audio and video streams, as reported by "Yahoo! News".


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Minaj has been called as a "fashion icon" by "Allure, Time," "XXL" and has been called a "camp style icon" by Refinery29. She has cited Alexander McQueen, Gianni Versace, and Christian Louboutin as her favorite designers. "The Huffington Post" described her style as "risk-taking" and "far-out", with "bold sartorial choices"; Minaj has been included on the annual "Maxim" Hot 100 list several times. In 2014, Minaj underwent a reinvention in her image sporting a "natural" and "softer" look, wearing fewer wigs and less colourful costumes. She stated that she "went so far to the other side that there's only one place to go from there. You can either continue doing costumes or you can just say, "Hey guess what? This will shock them even more. Doing nothing will shock them even more"".


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Her physique, notably her buttocks, has attracted significant attention from the media. Early in her career, she made autographing breasts part of her movement to empower women. In 2010, she said that although she originally felt obligated to mimic the provocative behavior of the "female rappers of [her] day", she intended to subdue her sexuality because she "[wants] people—especially young girls—to know that in life, nothing is going to be based on sex appeal. You've got to have something else to go with that."


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Minaj talked about feminism in an interview with "Vogue" in 2015, saying "There are things that I do that feminists don't like, and there are things that I do that they do like. I don't label myself. I just say the truth about what I feel. I feel like women can do anything that they put their minds to." In 2018, an interview with "Elle", in which she discussed sex workers, her own sex appeal, and sexuality in music and on social media, attracted criticism. In "The New York Times Magazine", music critic Vanessa Grigoriadis said that Minaj "has become expert at modelling the ways that women can wield power in the industry. But she has also drawn attention to the ways in which power can be embodied by a woman standing up for herself and speaking her own mind."


title: Nicki Minaj

text: The cover art and music video for her 2014 single, "Anaconda", attracted significant media attention upon release. The music video was viewed 19.6 million times in its first 24 hours of release. "The Guardian" called the video "racy" but noted that she "doesn't shy from ruffling her audience's feathers", while others praised Minaj for "owning her sexuality", examining her work through a feminist perspective. Another writer for "The Guardian" said, of the "Anaconda" video, Minaj turns "the classic song into a conversation, and [refuses] to let the camera objectify her lap dance by keeping it zoomed out, at a distance."


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Minaj's fanbase, known as the "Barbz", have been reported as often being militant towards Minaj's critics, including incidents reportedly involving cyberbullying and death threats.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In 2010, Minaj performed a cover of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", alongside singer Katy Perry, for service members during the 2010 VH1 Divas Salute the Troops concert. The two would later collaborate in 2017 on "Swish Swish". In 2011, Mattel created a Barbie doll with Minaj's likeness to auction for Project Angel Food, a charity that provides food for people afflicted with HIV and AIDS. In 2012, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Minaj donated $15,000 to the Food Bank For New York City and held a turkey drive at her alma mater, PS 45.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In May 2017, Minaj offered via Twitter to pay college tuition fees and student loans for 30 of her fans. She appeared to grant their requests, ranging from $500 to school supplies to $6,000 for tuition, promising to respond to more requests in a month or two. She also announced that she would launch an official charity for student loans and tuition payments in the near future. In the same month, Minaj revealed on Instagram that she has been donating money to a village in India for a few years via her pastor, Lydia Sloley. These donations helped the village get a computer center, a tailoring institute, a reading program, and two water wells. "This is the kind of thing that makes me feel the most proud", she said about the new additions to the village.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In August 2017, after Hurricane Harvey hit the city of Houston, Texas, Minaj answered a social media challenge by comedian and actor Kevin Hart and donated $25,000 to the Red Cross, saying she was "praying for everyone there". On September 4, 2018, Minaj appeared as a guest and performed several songs on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show". Throughout the episode, Minaj and Degeneres, with the participation of Walmart, gave out over $150,000 in donations to fans. In 2019, Minaj pulled out of headlining a concert in Saudi Arabia following online backlash from activists, after women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul, was detained and arrested for speaking out against the Saudi regime. Minaj was praised by Thor Halvorssen of The Human Rights Foundation, who criticized her initial plan to perform in a letter, and released a statement saying, "After careful reflection ... I believe it is important for me to make clear my support for the rights of women, the LGBTQ community and freedom of expression."


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In 2020, Minaj donated $25,000 to the St. Jude's Home for Girls school after visiting the school in her native country of Trinidad. In a speech, Minaj encouraged the girls to push through hard obstacles, even referencing her own experience with domestic violence: "I've experienced being in a home with domestic violence. I've experienced, you know, being at a very difficult crossroads in my life as a teenager. And sometimes as a teenager when things happen, you feel like there's no up from there." In the same year, following the release of Minaj and 6ix9ine's collaboration, "Trollz", Minaj announced that a portion of the proceeds from the song, along with profits from all merchandise, will go towards the Bail Project amid the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Various media outlets, such as "Billboard", "Time", "NME", "Rolling Stone", "NBC News" and "Cosmopolitan", have referred to Minaj as the "Queen of Rap" and "The New York Times", "The Washington Post", "NPR", and "The Los Angeles Times" have referred to her as the "Queen of Hip Hop". Several media outlets, including "The New York Times", "Evening Standard", and "Nylon", have also called her one of the most influential rappers.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In 2012, Jon Caramanica of "The New York Times" called Minaj "the most influential female rapper of all time", and in 2015 Vanessa Grigoriadis from its magazine called her "the world's biggest female rap superstar". In "Evening Standard", Jochan Embley called her one of the most influential rap artists of all time, saying that "Everything she does is bold, fearless and distinct – whether that be her eye-popping stage attire or her expertly delivered lyrics, which stare gender and race dead in the eye." Zoe Johnson from "XXL" called her "one of the most versatile MCs" and that she has "made millions off upbeat pop hits and traditional hip-hop sounds that cater to both her femininity and her assertive side".


title: Nicki Minaj

text: For "NPR Music", Sowmya Krishnamurthy noted that Minaj has portrayed "the quirky, life-size Barbie, glamorous vixen and girl-next-door", arguing that she "changed the landscape for artists in hip-hop for the past decade" with said alter egos. In 2017, Patrik Sandberg of "Dazed" argued that Minaj has "surpassed every other female hip hop artist to become the most successful in history" in 2017. In 2020, Nick Soulsby of PopMatters called her the "best female rapper and the best rapper of the past ten years – no gender preposition required." "Glamour" included Minaj in their list of 104 women who defined 2010s pop culture.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In "XXL", Madeline Roth commented that Minaj "has helped birth a new generation of rappers that mimic her style". She has influenced several artists, including Tinashe, Cher Lloyd, Cupcakke, Billie Eilish, Lil Nas X, Ms Banks, Asian Doll, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, Latto, Shenseea, BIA, Lakeyah, Luísa Sonza, Coi Leray, Maliibu Miitch, City Girls, Baby Tate, Rico Nasty, Flo Milli, Ivorian Doll, Angel Haze, Rubi Rose, and Saweetie. "Billboard" credited her for bringing female rap back to the mainstream in the US. With over 140 features, the magazine has called Minaj a "rap and pop icon" adding that "she's been one of popular music's most reliable guest performers, notching dozens of chart hits as a supporting presence on other artists' singles." Minaj has been credited by "Complex" for being able to "take a simple song and turn it into a smash hit just because she's featured on it." In 2012, Caramanica in "The New York Times" said that:Minaj "became a nimble, evocative rapper. She became an intricate lyricist. She became a thoughtful singer. She became a risky performer. She invented new personae. More than any other rapper in the mainstream, she pushed hard against expectations ... with no one around to compare herself to, or for others to compare her to, she became her own watermark."


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In 2014, "NPR"s Erik Nielson said that Minaj's "success over the last decade has stood as an exception to the unwritten rule that women rappers no longer have a place among elite artists". "Nylon" writer, Demicia Inman, also credited Minaj for her influence which "stands as one of the most successful rappers of the millennium", also going on to say that Minaj "battled misogyny and industry bias against black women to carve her own identity and sound" thus impacting her career. "Complex" also commented that, "From her bold outfits to her multi-colored wigs, Minaj oozed confidence that inspired others who were watching closely... [she] doesn't need anything but her art to speak for itself".


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Minaj is the recipient of numerous accolades, including eight American Music Awards, twelve BET Awards, seven BET Hip Hop Awards, four "Billboard" Music Awards, five MTV Video Music Awards, six MTV Europe Music Awards, two People's Choice Awards, one Soul Train Music Award, and four Teen Choice Awards. Minaj has received a total of 10 Grammy Award nominations. She received her first Grammy nomination in 2010 for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group ("My Chick Bad" with Ludacris). In 2012, Minaj received three nominations, including Best New Artist and Best Rap Album ("Pink Friday"). In 2014, she received her second nomination for Best Rap Album ("The Pinkprint"). She has won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Hip-Hop Video four times ("Super Bass", "Anaconda", "Chun-Li" and "Do We Have a Problem?") and has won the Best Female Video Award once ("Starships"). Minaj is the first woman to have appeared on the "Forbes" "Hip Hop Cash Kings" list since its inception in 2007, having made four consecutive appearances between 2011 and 2014.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In 2010, Minaj became the first female solo artist to have seven songs on the "Billboard" Hot 100 simultaneously, and the first woman to appear on MTV's Annual Hottest MC List since its inception in 2007. In 2011, Minaj was ranked sixth on the "Rolling Stone" master ranking of the "Kings of Hip Hop" which is based on record sales and social media metrics. She is the only rapper to win the BET Award for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist seven consecutive times. In 2013, Minaj became the most-charted female rapper on the "Billboard" Hot 100 at the time, with 44 entries, tying Mariah Carey as seventh among women of all genres.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Minaj has twenty-one top 10 singles on the chart, the most for any female rapper, with six of those being solo songs. In 2017, Minaj broke the record for most Hot 100 entries by any female artist, surpassing Aretha Franklin, and in 2018, she became the first female artist to accumulate 100 entries on the Hot 100. She held the mentioned record for most Hot 100 entries by a female artist until it was broken in December 2020 by singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. She is the female artist with the second-most Hot 100 entries, behind Swift. In 2019, "Billboard" Women in Music awarded her with the Game Changer Award.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In 2019, her collaboration with Karol G, named "Tusa", received two nominations at the Latin Grammys. The song became the longest-running number-one single on the Argentina Hot 100, having spent 25 weeks on the position. In 2020, Minaj become the second female rapper to chart at number one on the Hot 100 more than once with her 6ix9ine collaboration "Trollz". She also became the second female to debut atop the chart since Lauryn Hill in 1998. In the same year, she also was the most streamed female rapper on Spotify. In 2021, the music video for "Anaconda" became the first female rap solo song to reach one billion views on YouTube.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In total, Minaj has eight music videos with more than one billion views across all credits on YouTube, becoming the first female rapper to do so. She is only one of two female artists to have eight music videos reaching more than one billion views, tying with Rihanna . In 2016, she was listed on the "Time" 100 annual list of the most influential people in the world. She was also featured on one of the physical covers of the issue. "Complex" ranked her eighth on their list of best rappers of the 2010s, being the only female rapper on the list, and named her "Best Rapper Alive" of 2014.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Minaj has a line of fragrances first launched in September 2012. She partnered with 'Give Back Brands' to introduce her first fragrance, "Pink Friday", which was nominated for three 2013 FiFi Awards for Fragrance of the Year, Best Packaging, and Media Campaign of the Year. A "Pink Friday: Special Edition" was released in April 2013 and a deluxe edition version of the fragrance, titled "Pink Friday: Deluxe Edition", was launched in December 2013.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Her fourth and fifth fragrance line, "Minajesty", was launched in September 2013 followed by a flanker fragrance, "Minajesty: Exotic Edition", which was released exclusively to the Home Shopping Network in June 2014. This was followed by the launch of her sixth fragrance line, "Onika", in September 2014. A year later in 2015, Minaj released "The Pinkprint", her seventh fragrance in support of her third studio album of the same name. In 2016, Minaj launched her eighth fragrance "Trini Girl." In 2018, in support of her fourth studio album, she released her ninth fragrance, "Queen."


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Minaj has been affiliated with several manufacturing companies and has endorsed a number of products during her career. She has also stated that she has learned the ins and outs of business so she could do it herself. Her first collaboration was a November 2010 endorsement deal with MAC Cosmetics which sold a lipstick, "Pink 4 Friday", for four consecutive Fridays to promote her album "Pink Friday". In 2011, Minaj helped introduce the Casio TRYX in Times Square, and created a six-piece nail polish collection for OPI Products with colors named after her songs.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In April 2012, Minaj helped launch the Nokia Lumia 900 in Times Square. The following month, Minaj appeared in television and internet advertisements for Pepsi's "LiveForNow" campaign, which featured a remix of her single "Moment 4 Life". She endorsed the 2012 Viva Glam campaign with Ricky Martinwhich raised $270 million for the Mac AIDS Fundand was the face of the lip product line that year along with him.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: With designer Jeremy Scott, Minaj signed an endorsement deal with Adidas for the brand's fall and winter 2012 campaign to appear in internet advertisements and commercials for Adidas Originals. Set to her song, "Masquerade", her segment of the advertisement was filmed in Brooklyn and also featured Big Sean, Derrick Rose, Sky Ferreira and 2NE1 in other locations worldwide. In 2011, Mattel crafted a Barbie doll with Minaj's likeness for charity, which Minaj described as a "major moment" in her career. A spokeswoman for Mattel stated that, "Barbie is obviously a pop culture icon [...] and Nicki is a big part of pop culture and also huge within the fashion industry, as well as a big Barbie fan." Matthew Perpetua of "Rolling Stone" stated that the "Minaj Barbie doll is notable in that the rapper has made Barbie dolls a crucial part of her aesthetic."


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In February 2012, Minaj launched her own range of lip products for MAC Cosmetics' Viva Glam. She fronted the Viva Glam spring campaign by herself, which included the introduction of her limited edition lip product collection, titled "Nicki 2", which was launched in early 2013. She introduced her lifestyle product line, "The Nicki Minaj Collection" for Kmart, composed of clothing, accessories and houseware. In February 2013, Minaj starred in Bluewater Comics' "Fame" biographical-comic series, with her comic book, titled "Fame: Nicki Minaj". She partnered with Beats Electronics to introduce her "Pink Pill" speakers in April 2013, appearing with DeRay Davis in a commercial for the speakers that same month.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In June 2013, Minaj and Mona Scott-Young launched MYX Fusions, a line of fruit-infused, single serve moscato wine beveragelater expanding to sangria, rose, and chardonnayof which Minaj is a co-owner, creative director, and brand ambassador. In February 2014, Minaj released a spring clothing collection for Kmart. She released a summer and fall collection for the retailer, later that year. Minaj served as the face of Roberto Cavalli's springsummer campaign for that year.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In March 2015, it was announced that Minaj was a co-owner of the music streaming service Tidal. The service specializes in lossless audio and high definition music videos. In addition to Minaj and company owner Jay Z, sixteen stakeholders including Beyoncé, Madonna, Rihanna, and Kanye West own a 3% equity stake in the service. In November 2015, Minaj released a holiday capsule clothing collection for Kmart and its affiliated e-commerce platform, ShopYourWay. She released a limited edition couture collection for the retailer, which was also available at her website.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In September 2017, she released a duo of lipsticks, called "Nicki's Nude" and "The Pinkprint" (named after her third studio album) in collaboration with MAC Cosmetics. In November 2017, she starred in H&M's holiday campaign along with Anna Ewers, Mariacarla Boscono, Jesse Williams, Charlee Fraser, and Elibeidy Dani. In August 2018, Minaj starred in the trailer for EA Sports' Madden NFL 19 video game alongside Lil Dicky, Quavo and other celebrities. In November 2018, she co-starred with Quavo and "Saturday Night Live" member Chris Redd in the video game's holiday advertisement campaign.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In 2019, Minaj announced a collaboration with luxury fashion house Fendi, whose chief executive officer Serge Brunschwig stated the brand "shares great affinity with her. She represents one of Fendi's dimensions, the fun aspect of the br...", and that the collaboration "made sense [...] she will present it extremely well." Minaj's capsule collection with the brand, titled "Fendi Prints On"inspired by the lyric with the same words on Minaj's 2018 single, "Chun-Li"was officially announced in September that year, and was released on October 14, 2019.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: In September 2021, Minaj announced she would not be attending the 2021 Met Gala due to the COVID-19 vaccine requirement. She stated that she has avoided public appearances and traveling after contracting the virus herself and having to quarantine from her son as a result. She shared several tweets about her unvaccinated status and claimed she wanted to do more research and be comfortable with her decision first. She alleged in a Tweet that her cousin's friend in Trinidad suffered swollen testicles and became impotent as a result of the vaccine. These tweets received backlash where her story about her cousin's friend became the subject of jokes and memes. Trinidad and Tobago health minister Terrence Deyalsingh declared that her claims were false and that no such report existed.


title: Nicki Minaj

text: Shortly after, Minaj recommended other people get the vaccine and set up a Twitter poll on COVID-19 vaccine brands. She tweeted that she was sure she would get vaccinated herself because of touring. The White House offered her a phone call with a doctor to answer questions about the safety of the vaccine. In an Instagram Live response two days later, she claimed that she was simply asking questions and she did not give any facts about the vaccine. Minaj alleged that reporters harassed her family for a story, with her sharing some text messages she alleged were harassment on social media. In May 2022, Olivia Truffaut-Wong of "The Cut" alleged that Minaj had gotten vaccinated, as the 2022 Met Gala (which Minaj attended) requires proof of vaccination and a negative COVID-19 PCR test to attend.


title: Music

text: Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect of all human societies, a cultural universal. While scholars agree that music is defined by a few specific elements, there is no consensus on their precise definitions. The creation of music is commonly divided into musical composition, musical improvisation, and musical performance, though the topic itself extends into academic disciplines, criticism, philosophy, and psychology. Music may be performed or improvised using a vast range of instruments, including the human voice.


title: Music

text: In some musical contexts, a performance or composition may be to some extent improvised. For instance, in Hindustani classical music, the performer plays spontaneously while following a partially defined structure and using characteristic motifs. In modal jazz the performers may take turns leading and responding, while sharing a changing set of notes. In a free jazz context, there may be no structure whatsoever, with each performer acting at their discretion. Music may be deliberately composed to be unperformable, or agglomerated electronically from many performances. Music is played in public and private areas, highlighted at events such as festivals, rock concerts, and orchestra performance, and heard incidentally as part of a score or soundtrack to a film, TV show, opera, or video game. Musical playback is the primary function of an MP3 player or CD player and a universal feature of radios and smartphones.


title: Music

text: Music often plays a key role in social activities, religious rituals, rite of passage ceremonies, celebrations, and cultural activities. The music industry includes songwriters, performers, sound engineers, producers, tour organizers, distributors of instruments, accessories, and sheet music. Compositions, performances, and recordings are assessed and evaluated by music critics, music journalists, and music scholars, as well as amateurs.


title: Music

text: The modern English word 'music' came into use in the 1630s. It is derived from a long line of successive precursors: the Old English 'musike' of the mid-13th century; the Old French of the 12th century; and the Latin . The Latin word itself derives from the Ancient Greek ()— ()—literally meaning "(art) of the Muses". The Muses were nine deities in Ancient Greek Mythology who presided over the arts and sciences. They were included in tales by the earliest Western authors, Homer and Hesiod, and eventually came to be associated with music specifically. Over time, Polyhymnia would reside over music more prominently than the other muses. The Latin word was also the originator for both the Spanish and French via spelling and linguistic adjustment, though other European terms were probably loanwords, including the Italian , German , Dutch , Norwegian , Polish and Russian .


title: Music

text: The modern Western world usually defines music as an all-encompassing term, used to describe diverse genres, styles and traditions. This is not the case worldwide, and languages such as modern Indonesian ("musik") and Shona ("musakazo") have recently adopted words to reflect this universal conception, as they did not have words that fit exactly the Western scope. In East Asia, neither Japan or China have a single word which encompasses music in a broad sense, but culturally often regard music in such a fashion. The closest word to mean music in Chinese, , shares a character with , meaning joy, and originally referred to all the arts before its narrowing in meaning. Africa is too diverse to make firm generalizations, but the musicologist J. H. Kwabena Nketia has emphasized African music's often inseparable connection to dance and speech in general. Some African cultures, such as the Songye people of the DRC and Tiv people of Nigeria, have a strong and broad conception of 'music' but no corresponding word in their native languages. Other words commonly translated as 'music' often have more specific meanings in their respective cultures: the Hindi word for music, "sangita" properly refers to art music, while the many Indigenous languages of the Americas have words for music that refer specifically to song but describe instrumental music regardless. Though the Arabic "musiqi" can refer to all music, it is usually used for instrumental and metric music, while "khandan" identifies vocal and improvised music.


title: Music

text: It is often debated as to what extent the origins of music will ever be understood, and there are many competing theories which aim to explain it. Many scholars highlight a relationship between the origin of music and the origin of language, and there is disagreement surrounding whether music developed before, after, or simultaneously with language. A similar source of contention surrounds whether music the intentional result of natural selection or was a byproduct spandrel of evolution. The earliest influential theory was proposed by Charles Darwin in 1871, who stated that music arose as form of sexual selection, perhaps via in mating calls. Darwin's original perspective has been heavily criticized for its inconsistencies with other sexual selection methods, though many scholars in the 21st century have developed and promoted the theory. Other theories include that music arose to assist in organizing labor, improving long-distance communication, benefiting communication with the divine, assisting in community cohesion or as a defence to scare of predators.


title: Music

text: Prehistoric music can only be theorized based on findings from paleolithic archaeology sites. Flutes are often discovered, carved from bones in which lateral holes have been pierced; these are thought to have been blown at one end like the Japanese . The Divje Babe flute, carved from a cave bear femur, is thought to be at least 40,000 years old, though there is considerable debate surrounding whether it is truly a musical instrument or an object formed by animals. Instruments such as the seven-holed flute and various types of stringed instruments, such as the Ravanahatha, have been recovered from the Indus Valley civilization archaeological sites.


title: Music

text: India has one of the oldest musical traditions in the world—references to Indian classical music ("marga") are found in the Vedas, ancient scriptures of the Hindu tradition.


title: Music

text: The earliest and largest collection of prehistoric musical instruments was found in China and dates back to between 7000 and 6600 BCE.


title: Music

text: The earliest material and representational evidence of Egyptian musical instruments dates to the Predynastic period, but the evidence is more securely attested in the Old Kingdom when harps, flutes and double clarinets were played. Percussion instruments, lyres, and lutes were added to orchestras by the Middle Kingdom. Cymbals frequently accompanied music and dance, much as they still do in Egypt today. Egyptian folk music, including the traditional Sufi rituals, are the closest contemporary music genre to ancient Egyptian music, having preserved many of its features, rhythms and instruments.


title: Music

text: The "Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal", found on clay tablets that date back to approximately 1400 BCE, is the oldest surviving notated work of music.


title: Music

text: Music was an important part of social and cultural life in ancient Greece, in fact it was one of the main subjects taught to children. Musical education was considered to be important for the development of an individual's soul. Musicians and singers played a prominent role in Greek theater, and those who received a musical education were seen as nobles and in perfect harmony (as can be read in the Republic, Plato). Mixed gender choruses performed for entertainment, celebration, and spiritual ceremonies. Instruments included the double-reed and a plucked string instrument, the "lyre", principally a special kind called a . Music was an important part of education, and boys were taught music starting at age six. Greek musical literacy created significant musical development. Greek music theory included the Greek musical modes, that eventually became the basis for Western religious and classical music. Later, influences from the Roman Empire, Eastern Europe, and the Byzantine Empire changed Greek music. The Seikilos epitaph is the oldest surviving example of a complete musical composition, including musical notation, from anywhere in the world. The oldest surviving work written on the subject of music theory is "Harmonika Stoicheia" by Aristoxenus.


title: Music

text: Asian music covers a vast swath of music cultures surveyed in the articles on Arabia, Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Several have traditions reaching into antiquity.


title: Music

text: Indian classical music is one of the oldest musical traditions in the world. Sculptures from the Indus Valley civilization show dance and old musical instruments, like the seven holed flute. Various types of stringed instruments and drums have been recovered from Harappa and Mohenjo Daro by excavations carried out by Sir Mortimer Wheeler. The Rigveda, an ancient Hindu text, has elements of present Indian music, with musical notation to denote the meter and the mode of chanting. Indian classical music (marga) is monophonic, and based on a single melody line or raga rhythmically organized through talas. "Silappadhikaram" by Ilango Adigal provides information about how new scales can be formed by modal shifting of the tonic from an existing scale. Present day Hindi music was influenced by Persian traditional music and Afghan Mughals. Carnatic music, popular in the southern states, is largely devotional; the majority of the songs are addressed to the Hindu deities. There are also many songs emphasizing love and other social issues.


title: Music

text: Indonesian music has been formed since the Bronze Age culture migrated to the Indonesian archipelago in the 2nd to 3rd centuries BCE. Indonesian traditional music often uses percussion instruments, especially kendang and gongs. Some of them developed elaborate and distinctive musical instruments, such as the sasando stringed instrument on the island of Rote, the Sundanese angklung, and the complex and sophisticated Javanese and Balinese gamelan orchestras. Indonesia is the home of gong chime, a general term for a set of small, high pitched pot gongs. Gongs are usually placed in order of note, with the boss up on a string held in a low wooden frame. The most popular and famous form of Indonesian music is probably gamelan, an ensemble of tuned percussion instruments that include metallophones, drums, gongs and spike fiddles along with bamboo suling.


title: Music

text: Chinese classical music, the traditional art or court music of China, has a history stretching over around three thousand years. It has its own unique systems of musical notation, as well as musical tuning and pitch, musical instruments and styles or musical genres. Chinese music is pentatonic-diatonic, having a scale of twelve notes to an octave (5 + 7 = 12) as does European-influenced music.


title: Music

text: The medieval music era (476 to 1400), which took place during the Middle Ages, started with the introduction of monophonic (single melodic line) chanting into Roman Catholic Church services. Musical notation was used since Ancient times in Greek culture, but in the Middle Ages, notation was first introduced by the Catholic church so that the chant melodies could be written down, to facilitate the use of the same melodies for religious music across the entire Catholic empire. The only European Medieval repertory that has been found in written form from before 800 is the monophonic liturgical plainsong chant of the Roman Catholic Church, the central tradition of which was called Gregorian chant. Alongside these traditions of sacred and church music there existed a vibrant tradition of secular song (non-religious songs). Examples of composers from this period are Léonin, Pérotin, Guillaume de Machaut, and Walther von der Vogelweide.


title: Music

text: Renaissance music (c. 1400 to 1600) was more focused on secular (non-religious) themes, such as courtly love. Around 1450, the printing press was invented, which made printed sheet music much less expensive and easier to mass-produce (prior to the invention of the printing press, all notated music was hand-copied). The increased availability of sheet music helped to spread musical styles more quickly and across a larger area. Musicians and singers often worked for the church, courts and towns. Church choirs grew in size, and the church remained an important patron of music. By the middle of the 15th century, composers wrote richly polyphonic sacred music, in which different melody lines were interwoven simultaneously. Prominent composers from this era include Guillaume Dufay, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Thomas Morley, and Orlande de Lassus. As musical activity shifted from the church to the aristocratic courts, kings, queens and princes competed for the finest composers. Many leading important composers came from the Netherlands, Belgium, and northern France. They are called the Franco-Flemish composers. They held important positions throughout Europe, especially in Italy. Other countries with vibrant musical activity included Germany, England, and Spain.


title: Music

text: The Baroque era of music took place from 1600 to 1750, as the Baroque artistic style flourished across Europe; and during this time, music expanded in its range and complexity. Baroque music began when the first operas (dramatic solo vocal music accompanied by orchestra) were written. During the Baroque era, polyphonic contrapuntal music, in which multiple, simultaneous independent melody lines were used, remained important (counterpoint was important in the vocal music of the Medieval era). German Baroque composers wrote for small ensembles including strings, brass, and woodwinds, as well as for choirs and keyboard instruments such as pipe organ, harpsichord, and clavichord. During this period several major music forms were defined that lasted into later periods when they were expanded and evolved further, including the fugue, the invention, the sonata, and the concerto. The late Baroque style was polyphonically complex and richly ornamented. Important composers from the Baroque era include Johann Sebastian Bach ("Cello suites"), George Frideric Handel ("Messiah"), Georg Philipp Telemann and Antonio Lucio Vivaldi ("The Four Seasons").


title: Music

text: The music of the Classical period (1730 to 1820) aimed to imitate what were seen as the key elements of the art and philosophy of Ancient Greece and Rome: the ideals of balance, proportion and disciplined expression. (Note: the music from the Classical period should not be confused with Classical music in general, a term which refers to Western art music from the 5th century to the 2000s, which includes the Classical period as one of a number of periods). Music from the Classical period has a lighter, clearer and considerably simpler texture than the Baroque music which preceded it. The main style was homophony, where a prominent melody and a subordinate chordal accompaniment part are clearly distinct. Classical instrumental melodies tended to be almost voicelike and singable. New genres were developed, and the fortepiano, the forerunner to the modern piano, replaced the Baroque era harpsichord and pipe organ as the main keyboard instrument (though pipe organ continued to be used in sacred music, such as Masses).


title: Music

text: Importance was given to instrumental music. It was dominated by further development of musical forms initially defined in the Baroque period: the sonata, the concerto, and the symphony. Others main kinds were the trio, string quartet, serenade and divertimento. The sonata was the most important and developed form. Although Baroque composers also wrote sonatas, the Classical style of sonata is completely distinct. All of the main instrumental forms of the Classical era, from string quartets to symphonies and concertos, were based on the structure of the sonata. The instruments used chamber music and orchestra became more standardized. In place of the basso continuo group of the Baroque era, which consisted of harpsichord, organ or lute along with a number of bass instruments selected at the discretion of the group leader (e.g., viol, cello, theorbo, serpent), Classical chamber groups used specified, standardized instruments (e.g., a string quartet would be performed by two violins, a viola and a cello). The Baroque era improvised chord-playing of the continuo keyboardist or lute player was gradually phased out between 1750 and 1800.


title: Music

text: One of the most important changes made in the Classical period was the development of public concerts. The aristocracy still played a significant role in the sponsorship of concerts and compositions, but it was now possible for composers to survive without being permanent employees of queens or princes. The increasing popularity of classical music led to a growth in the number and types of orchestras. The expansion of orchestral concerts necessitated the building of large public performance spaces. Symphonic music including symphonies, musical accompaniment to ballet and mixed vocal/instrumental genres such as opera and oratorio became more popular.


title: Music

text: The best known composers of Classicism are Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Johann Christian Bach, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert. Beethoven and Schubert are also considered to be composers in the later part of the Classical era, as it began to move towards Romanticism.


title: Music

text: Romantic music (c. 1810 to 1900) from the 19th century had many elements in common with the Romantic styles in literature and painting of the era. Romanticism was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature. Romantic music expanded beyond the rigid styles and forms of the Classical era into more passionate, dramatic expressive pieces and songs. Romantic composers such as Wagner and Brahms attempted to increase emotional expression and power in their music to describe deeper truths or human feelings. With symphonic tone poems, composers tried to tell stories and evoke images or landscapes using instrumental music. Some composers promoted nationalistic pride with patriotic orchestral music inspired by folk music. The emotional and expressive qualities of music came to take precedence over tradition.


title: Music

text: Romantic composers grew in idiosyncrasy, and went further in the syncretism of exploring different art-forms in a musical context, (such as literature), history (historical figures and legends), or nature itself. Romantic love or longing was a prevalent theme in many works composed during this period. In some cases, the formal structures from the classical period continued to be used (e.g., the sonata form used in string quartets and symphonies), but these forms were expanded and altered. In many cases, new approaches were explored for existing genres, forms, and functions. Also, new forms were created that were deemed better suited to the new subject matter. Composers continued to develop opera and ballet music, exploring new styles and themes.


title: Music

text: In the years after 1800, the music developed by Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert introduced a more dramatic, expressive style. In Beethoven's case, short motifs, developed organically, came to replace melody as the most significant compositional unit (an example is the distinctive four note figure used in his Fifth Symphony). Later Romantic composers such as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Antonín Dvořák, and Gustav Mahler used more unusual chords and more dissonance to create dramatic tension. They generated complex and often much longer musical works. During the late Romantic period, composers explored dramatic chromatic alterations of tonality, such as extended chords and altered chords, which created new sound "colors." The late 19th century saw a dramatic expansion in the size of the orchestra, and the industrial revolution helped to create better instruments, creating a more powerful sound. Public concerts became an important part of well-to-do urban society. It also saw a new diversity in theatre music, including operetta, and musical comedy and other forms of musical theatre.


title: Music

text: In the 19th century, one of the key ways that new compositions became known to the public was by the sales of sheet music, which middle class amateur music lovers would perform at home on their piano or other common instruments, such as violin. With 20th-century music, the invention of new electric technologies such as radio broadcasting and the mass market availability of gramophone records meant that sound recordings of songs and pieces heard by listeners (either on the radio or on their record player) became the main way to learn about new songs and pieces. There was a vast increase in music listening as the radio gained popularity and phonographs were used to replay and distribute music, anyone with a radio or record player could hear operas, symphonies and big bands right in their own living room, while during the 19th century, the focus on sheet music restricted access to new music to the middle class and upper-class people who could read music and who owned pianos and instruments. This allowed lower-income people, who could not afford an opera or symphony concert ticket to hear this music. It also meant that people could hear music from different parts of the country, or even different parts of the world, even if they could not afford to travel to these locations. This helped to spread musical styles.


title: Music

text: The focus of art music in the 20th century was characterized by exploration of new rhythms, styles, and sounds. The horrors of World War I influenced many of the arts, including music, and some composers began exploring darker, harsher sounds. Traditional music styles such as jazz and folk music were used by composers as a source of ideas for classical music. Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, and John Cage were all influential composers in 20th-century art music. The invention of sound recording and the ability to edit music gave rise to new subgenre of classical music, including the acousmatic and Musique concrète schools of electronic composition. Sound recording was also a major influence on the development of popular music genres, because it enabled recordings of songs and bands to be widely distributed. The introduction of the multitrack recording system had a major influence on rock music, because it could do much more than record a band's performance. Using a multitrack system, a band and their music producer could overdub many layers of instrument tracks and vocals, creating new sounds that would not be possible in a live performance.


title: Music

text: Jazz evolved and became an important genre of music over the course of the 20th century, and during the second half of that century, rock music did the same. Jazz is an American musical artform that originated in the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions. The style's West African pedigree is evident in its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation, and the swung note.