Queen of rap, Nicki Minaj, is on the cover of Vogue’s December issue as the magazine does an extensive sit-down with her about her career, music, and the various shifts in her life that make her Onika Tanya Maraj at home and Nicki Minaj to her fans.
In the spread, Minaj speaks about how her mindset has grown from the time she became a Young Money star in 2009 to now. In one part, she explains that black women especially are pressured by unrealistic beauty standards but looking back, when she had surgeries to enlarge her butt, it was silly.
Nicki Minaj has in the past admitted to having butt injections, but those procedures have become less popular because of the negative side effect it has on women. However, Minaj explains that she is much more comfortable with herself now versus when she became a star.
“I just looked at a video that I posted on Instagram when I was 25, and I would f**king pay to look like that right now,” she said in the article. “But today I can say that I’m at peace with who I am and how I look…Recently I had to get a breast reduction, and actually I love it. I used to want a bigger butt, and now I look back and realize how silly that was. So—love your curves and love your non-curves. There’s nothing wrong with any of it,” she told fans.
The Trinidadian rapper also revealed that she is very conscious of what she feeds her three-year-old son, Papa Bear, who was also featured in the article. According to her, she is careful in ensuring that his sweets, candy, and juice intake is limited because diabetes is prevalent in the black community.
“I’m not in favor of body positivity if it means unhealthy bodies. That’s bull. It’s not believable, so let’s stop pretending,” she added.
Nicki Minak talks marriage to Kenneth Petty
In the meantime, the Pink Friday rapper also spoke about her surprise marriage to Kenneth Petty, noting that it was better for her to connect with someone she’s known all her life rather than someone who would only see her as Nicki Minaj- a persona.
“There’s an ease we have with each other… we make each other laugh. We’re silly. And we’re always reminiscing about some old story. If it was a guy that I met as Nicki Minaj, I think I’d feel like they liked me because I’m Nicki Minaj, and what if I don’t look like Nicki Minaj every day? And that, combined with pregnancy, would probably have made me crazy,” she said.
The rapper also shared how her late father’s addiction to crack cocaine deeply affected her and their family, as he was more driven to do whatever it took to make money to buy drugs than sympathize that he was a victim.
However, that is not to say that she did not have a tough childhood, which she describes as fighting for her mother’s approval while also having big dreams that seemed impossible.
Nicki Minaj also describes her dream of wanting to be an actress first- putting her efforts into dreams of being on the big screen and impacting the world like Halle Berry. However, her confidence was dashed when no audition picked her up. Still, she was destined for greatness as she pursued underground rapping while working as an office manager after being fired from three separate Red Lobsters.
It didn’t take long before her sheer talent caught the eye and ears of Lil Wayne, who later signed her to Young Money, and there she blew up with ‘Pink Friday’.
The rapper is now at a critical moment in her life- the height of her career at 40 years old and more successful than she’s ever been. Despite her ideas of motherhood, Minaj says she continues to work and loves doing music.
Her fifth studio album, Pink Friday 2 is set for release next month.
