press conference
Let's shift gears for a minute and talk about New York City. I actually get in arguments because people say Nicki doesn't rep New York. I say "What do you mean? She shouts it out all of the time."
Y'all don't want me to rep y'all. Y'all don't hear when I rep y'all cause y'all be dick-riding everybody else.
She does have a point. Do you feel you get the proper love from New York?
Hell fucking no.
And I never understood that because you ran the same circuits of all these other rappers. You did the DVDs. You did the mixtapes. You came up on mixtapes like every other underground rapper in New York.
I was selling my mixtape out of my mutherfucking BMW out on Jamaica mutherfucking Avenue to Amadu and Hussaine and these niggas. Fuck you niggas! You niggas don't know the fucking half of what I've fucking been through!
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Well, Sir Isaac Newton said the law of energy is, "Energy is not lost or destroyed, it is merely transferred from on party to the next." You got a miserable bitch on a blog who writes something negative about you, you read it, and now you're miserable.
Absolutely. Right. Absolutely.
What you think about the blogs, Scaff Beezy?
Honestly, the blogs could just suck my damn cock, balls, deepthroat, gag, and choke.
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So, Miss Nicki Minaj, what do you say to people that say you're trying to be something that you're not like Lady Gaga or Madonna and you're doing things for shock value?
Well, I mean, I don't know. In a minute, if I fucking sit down and piss, they're going to tell me I can't do that cause another bitch did it.
Stupid ass bitches! Yo, niggas just want to compare her to somebody.
Everybody! If they ever see me sitting down and peeing, they're gonna fucking stone me.
They're gonna say, "You're trying to be like Barack's wife. Look at her, she's sitting down and peeing like that. You trying to be like Michelle."
"Why you sitting down and peeing Nicki?"
"Why don't you stand up?"
That happens to everybody, though.
It does.
No, Nicki gets it so hard -- pause! Hospital flow, need more gauze.
I think when they don't understand something they gotta compare it to something to make themselves feel comfortable.
Absolutely, I always say that. For their minds to interpret it, they have to draw a comparison. And I always say, even though it's very common, it's just a more simple-minded approach as opposed to looking at every situation as if it's the first time. It is what it is. But even she gets compared to Madonna, and it's a never-ending cycle. But I rather you compare me to someone that is winning and that's won than compare me to...
Someone that is washed. That's a natural emotion though... It's easy for a loser to be jealous of a winner. That's just the way that it is.
Do you ever look back at some of your performances and look at your costumes and your wigs and say, "I did look like a damn fool?"
Yes! Yes, I do. Yes, I do.
Do you ever think that?
Sometimes. Every now and then. You know what I like about superstars? I like my superstars to be out there. Jump out the window! Be like Prince with your ass out. I may see it and say, "Damn, she looks like a fool," but you're a superstar.
That's how I want to see my superstars. I don't want to see my superstars regular.
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I keep saying this: I went to school for theater. I took four years of my life and devoted it to theater.
I did that because my passion was acting. When I started rapping, I felt like I couldn't really be myself. When I started winning, I started feeling that I can be myself. I can do my accents, I can do my voices, I can do my faces, I can do costumes.
I can now bring me to who, you know, people see as Nicki Minaj. I can now really bring me into it. And I think that's where the confusion lies, is that people thought that when I first came out, that that was me in my entirety. But that wasn't. That was a small facet of who I was.
But, who you see now is just a more multi-faceted mixture of all the personalities that I have in me. I mean... and I think that if I was to not show that, then I wouldn't be doing justice to all the people that feel like I do. Cause for every person who doesn't understand it is, there is a person who feels like me, who feels like... sometimes I just break out in an English accent, you know, like, what's wrong with that?
You can! Why not?
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Do you think that mixtape Nicki and pop Nicki can exist in the same space?
They already are. They're already existing together, and they are both winning.
Who do you feel that you lean towards more?
I can't choose. I can't pick. I feel like the world makes them two different people, but in my mind they're the same person.
That's what I keep saying... I grew up in New York my whole life. I would go to the block and hang out with my home girls on the weekend, and then Monday through Friday I was having a nine-to-five on Wall Street.
When I was an office manager I wasn't having the same conversation in the office that I was having on the block, but I was still the same person. I was Onika. But I knew how to switch it up and have an intelligent conversation with one group of people, get a job, ace the interview, and then go home with my home girls and have fun.
It seems like you're very versatile. If it's one thing that I would love for little girls to embrace from Nicki Minaj is the fact that she is versatile. She knows how to kick it in the streets and she knows how to kick it in the corporate setting.
Right, because you can't do too much of either. You really can't.
It's unfortunate that at times hip hop culture will tell you to lean only to one side, when that is detrimental for your future. It's detrimental for your growth. It's detrimental to your longevity.
At a certain point as a woman -- I'm not talking about as a man because we've seen The Blueprint with Jay. We've seen that you could come in the game and do 10, 12, 15 – still win and still be the king of hip hop. We have not seen that with a woman. So, show me the blueprint. That's all I want you to do -- show me the blueprint.
I think you are creating it. Because Queen Latifah doesn't exist in that space anymore. She went on to become an actress.
And is someone who I tip my hat to because Queen Latifah looked at it and said, "Okay, wait, hmm, I may not want to be 40 years old rapping. The hip hop fans may not want to hear me when I'm 40 years old rapping. So I'm going to move in a way so that every aspect of who I am can be seen." Queen Latifah does musicals, movies, voice-overs for cartoons -- is she a sellout or is she winning?
She's winning!
So these other bitches that only did rap and now they're washed, and they're living in, you know, low income housing - is that winning? Just so that a nigga in the street can give me a fucking dap? The same niggas that didn't buy my album any fucking way, that downloaded the shit? Get the fuck out of here!
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When it's all said and done, are you going to want to have kids? Get married?
Oh my goodness, I have to! I have to! Yep. I'm gonna get married and have kids. I love children. I am obsessed with children.
And yeah, I believe in marriage, and I believe marriage is forever. So, that's the other thing...
"Look in my eyes, look in my eyes / Know that we'll always be forever / Moment in time, moment in time..."
Safaree... Safaree...
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Do you have any regrets? Cause you've had a relatively short career. This is the second album, and hopefully we can ten more of these. But do you have any regrets in this short time that you've been Nicki Minaj?
I think my only regret would be not enjoying every single moment when I could have.
How can the author of "I wish I could enjoy this moment for life" not be here trying to enjoy every moment?
Absolutely. And that's the thing. It kinda just comes so quickly.
Pause!
And then all of a sudden it's like, "Wait a minute. I just did Super Bowl. I just did Super Bowl with Madonna. And before I go into the Super Bowl stage I'm just stressing and worrying. And then when I come off it's all done. And what I did I even enjoy about it?
Not even that, you closed up the Grammy's.
But that's why, cause she's doing the Super Bowl, and she's thinking about the Grammy's.
And then I'm doing the Grammy's, and I'm thinking about the NBA all-star game. That's the only thing.
I've gotten to a very good place, though. All of my friends and mentors in the game have been reaching out to me trying to encourage me because for some strange reason they knew how frazzled I used to be. And every time I tell people, "No, no, I'm really good. I'm really happy. I'm really at a peaceful place." It's almost like they don't believe me. So I thought the other day, I must have really, really been worried a lot. Because people who know me very well are like, "Are you sure you're ok?" But I really am. I've never been this happy. I'm so proud of this album. I'm proud of myself. And I will not allow anyone to scare me out of my true potential. It's a scare tactic.
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What is Nicki Minaj's purpose? Because from the outside looking in, I think you're a very blessed individual. Because you got two things going against you. Number one, you're a female. And the female hip hop division was not existent before you started popping. And then you're from New York. There's a lot of rappers from New York that aren't popping right now. So you got those two things going against you.
Being that you were able to break through that and be the big superstar that you are, it's like, "She's obviously here for something." I think it's a bigger purpose than maybe you even know. But what is Nicki Minaj's purpose?
I have to pray on that. I think that my purpose will eventually be related to some sort of movement for my younger fans, really... I've always had this dream of having a Nicki Minaj YMCA type of thing. When I was young -- well, everybody knows my story -- we didn't have a lot. Free lunch was the thing, "We can get free lunch. Oh, we're going to free lunch. This is like dope!" So I remember those moments and I always play them back in my head. And I wish to think to myself, I wish there was a place we could also go to to go swimming and to do this and to do that.
But things were moving so quickly. My parents were so, not really stable and just -- my father being an addict and all that. In a lot of ways I feel like I didn't really have a childhood. So when I see kids, it melts my heart because I'm looking at them and I'm like "They'll never get this moment back again, and they'll always remember this time." How do we as adults optimize it for them right now, whether they have money or not.
I think that one day I would like to do something for them, for kids in the inner cities, for them to have a place where they can go to and have not only recreation but schooling, tutoring. I remember I was really really smart in school, and I think my mother took that for granted. So she wouldn't really sit with me and take the extra time to give me that extra push. But I think that kids need that.
It's weird because people would never expect me to be so into children's education, but that's real shit. I don't just say that because it sounds good. I really am interested in learning how to build the education system to a point where we have more of a success rate in terms of black children that go from high school to college.
I feel like college was not something that was engraved in my brain. I don't feel like that ever happened. Most of my closest girlfriends, it was just like once they got out of high school they figured, "Oh well, we're good now, we're out of high school," or "I got my GED, I'm good." And I don't want my fans to think like that.
I have such a great rapport with my fans. When they see me, they really be bringing out their Bachelor's and their Master's saying, "Look, Nicki, Look." Because they know how important it is to me. It's OK to have fun (I'mma give you the raunchiest verse sometimes), but I also want you to realize that it's for a time.
One day, you're going to look back and think "Wait a minute, did I really lose my life clubbing and miss out on a moment where I could've been building myself as a woman and having something to offer my children?"
We got so many girls right now having children and don't even know the first thing to say to a child. But you're having a child because I want to keep this dude or it just happened. I want to get us to the place where it doesn't just happen and that we're smarter than that. We're the ones in control again. Why are we never in control?
Why are we stuck with a baby? Why are we always stuck on the welfare line? Why are we always stuck having to beg, borrow, and steal to provide for our children? Why do we think it's something wrong for waiting to have a baby? Waiting until you're 35 or 36 to have children?
Technology has changed – you can wait! Have something to offer them. That's something that's dear to my heart, doing something that makes children feel like "I don't have to rush to grow up. I can enjoy my childhood. I can have somewhere to go for free for recreational purposes and for schooling purposes." That's my bigger goal in life.
How do you stay humble? I know you keep a tight circle, you keep guys like Scaff Beezy around.
I'm gonna ask Scaff. How do you keep her humble, Scaff Beezy? Do you ever see her getting a little bit extra...?
You wanna know what's crazy? Yesterday, remember I was saying to you, "It's so crazy. She's so famous." If she goes out, anytime we go somewhere, it's such a freaking chaotic zoo movie.
The other day we went to a carnival. We thought we'd be able to be in there, and just go on some rides, and nobody will notice anything. Within like seven minutes the whole park -- it was 10, 15 minutes until we got out.
She really hasn't changed. She really don't act like, "I'm this person" or, "I'm that person." She just be there looking so oblivious to what's going on. Sometimes she doesn't even know she's famous like that. It doesn't faze her. She really hasn't changed a bit.
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Pay attention to that. How did you escape being more than just an ass?
We said that the other day, before I was just a rapping butt.
A butt with lyrics
How did you get out of that?
Because I created a brand.
People take for granted how hard it is so shout out to every woman and man that's won. It's very hard, mentally, this shit is draining and draining. For you to be able to get up there and do music that people love, and do interviews with a smile on your face, and act like this shit ain't getting to you, it's draining.
It's crazy! That's why so many artists go on drugs or become alcoholics. When I was coming up, I never understood it. I use to be like, "What? They are so ungrateful. Why are they on drugs? Why don't they fucking appreciate their success? I would kill to be where they are," until you get here and you are like, "Oh my god! Lord, is this the price I have to pay if I really want this?" And he's like, "Yep. Now let's see who really want it." But, I think I became more than that because people cannot deny... at the end of the day, people can't deny that...
You the shit. Say it! You don't have to be humble. Be like Ray J. "I'm tired of being humble."
I'm not a cocky person by nature.
Scaff, be cocky for her!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, man. You bitches ain't shit, man. You need to just really -- When you see her, get the rose petals, just like she's said before, throw it out in front of her feet. You pour out the champagne. You feed her grapes. If something needs to be sucked, you suck it!
What!? What would need to be sucked? On you?
Ay. Anything. Anywhere. I'm in these streets looking for work. We're all in these streets, we're looking for that work, that twerk.
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I just want to tell you, Nicki, I think that you're very necessary. I think you represent something way bigger than hip hop. I think that you're gonna take hip hop to new levels. And I think, like how Jay-Z took it to heights and made people be like, "Damn, hip hop can take you this far!?" I think you're taking that baton and you're gonna take it even further. So keep doing your thing, Ma.
Thank you, darling.
Charlemange da God, singed out!