Nicki Minaj admits to struggling with anxiety surrounding her fame.
The Trinidadian rapper is arguably one of the greatest female rappers of all time, but that does not mean that Nicki Minaj does not have her own insecurities. Recently the “Super Bass” artiste opened up to James Corden about her struggles with anxiety which she attributes to living a life in a fishbowl under the constant glare of public scrutiny.
In a recent episode of ‘Carpool Karaoke’, Mrs. Petty gave some insight into her personal struggles. She felt that no matter how confident a woman may be about her talent and looks, if she is constantly being nit-picked and criticized, it will eventually have a negative effect.
Nicki Minaj said, “I think when I was younger, probably my natural state was to be more confident but I think when you’re a woman and you’re in the public eye all the time if you’re not careful you can become less confident because you’re being constantly scrutinized. ”
Celebrities, she added, now have to think not only before they say anything but also before they do the simplest of actions, as everything can be interpreted wrong or misconstrued.
“I don’t think it’s natural. It’s not natural for a human being to always feel like everyone critiquing them. When I first came into the industry I had this amazing sense of freedom because nobody gave a sh*t about what I was doing. I could get away with doing anything and they’re just like ‘Oh haha Nicki Minaj!’ and then it goes from that to the complete opposite where it’s like, if I blink my eye wrong they’ll have a story made up about why I’ve blinked my eye that way,” she divulged.
The discussion arose in the karaoke car as James said that he noticed Nicki loves to chew on ice, and she then admitted that for her, eating ice was similar to having a stress ball that some people squeeze to relieve their anxiety. “I feel like it’s my anxiety ball, you know like a stress ball. So every time I’m biting the ice I’m taking out the anxiety,” she expressed.
Doing some of Nicki’s big hits, the duo sang “Blick Blick”, “Super Bass,” and “Chun-Li”. When it came to performing “Anaconda”, Nicki Minaj jokingly tried to explain to him that the track consisted of motivational titbits that are beneficial to the world, to which Corden said he understood what the song was all about, and while it was fun, it would not be his first pick of a Ted Talk motivational speech. Armed with her British accent, she continued about how she saw Adele on a recent episode sing one of her own songs, which she loved as Adele embodied her spirit. Nicki added that she was surprised as Adele generally sang sad and emotional songs. The two then went into a rendition of Adele’s “Someone Like You.”
