By the time you finish reading this, Nicki Minaj may be the biggest rapper alive. With her debut albumPink Fridayset to drop in late November, Minaj is poised to turn the flurry of buzz that first emerged with the release of her mind-melting mixtapes into mind-melting record sales. In the blink of an eye, Minaj has emerged as one of the hottest emcees in the game, and she did it without even having an album out. What makes her rise even more remarkable is that she did it in a male-dominated industry, with as much experimentation and exploration as a certain pop star she’s often compared to,Lady Gaga. With hip-hop heavyweights likeDrake,Jay-ZandKanye Westin her corner, and her mentorLil Wayneleading the way, Nicki Minaj is poised to become not only one of the biggest female rappers of all time, but one of the biggest rappers of all time, period.

The point is, everyone is not black and white. There are so many shades in the middle, and you’ve got to let people feel comfortable with saying what they want to say when they want to say it. I don’t want to feel like I’ve got the gun pointed at my head and you’re about to pull the trigger if I don’t say what you want to hear. I just want to be me and do me.

andFoxy Brownwere best known for bragging about their abilities in the bedroom over their abilities in the studio, but Nicki Minaj has changed all that. Although her early career features the requisite ual posturing, she’s since branched off into more avant-garde re, dressing up in intergalactic couture and spitting rhymes like forget barbie f-ck nicki she’s ke/she’s on a diet but my pockets eating cheese cake/and I’ll say bride of Chucky is child’s play/just killed another career it’s a mild day. In ct, Minaj has gone out of her way to remain ually ambiguous, once calling boys yucky, but denying persistent rumors of her biuality. When all is said and done, we may never know Minaj’s true ual intentions, but we do know one thing: That girl’s got some booty.

,Usher, Robin Thicke, Ludacris, andMariah Carey, Minaj topped off her incredible year by out-rapping both Kanye West and Jay-Z on West’s epic party track Monster. The thunderous verse was the talk of the hip-hop world the second it dropped, and instantly made Minaj’s upcoming debut albumPink Fridayone of the most anticipated releases of the year.

When Nicki Minaj graduated high school, the aspiring rapper took a job at Red Lobster and bought herself some studio time, and a shiny white BMW in which she would drive around the neighborhood, blasting her own songs. Brooklyn rapper Fendi took notice of Minaj and signed her to his underground label Dirty Money, where she would go on to rap on a DVD calledThe Come Upover The Notorious B.I.G’s Warning. The audacious move created buzz in the rap world, and caught the attention of a certain tattooed, dreadlocked rapper from Atlanta who would change Minaj’s life forever.

There may be no better way to jump start a fledgling rap career than to hook up with and be steered by one of the industry’s biggest names. So when Lil Wayne called Nicki Minaj after hearing her work onThe Come UpDVD, her success suddenly seemed preordained. Weezy oversaw Minaj’s two seminal mixtapes, 2008’sSucka Freeand 2009’sBeam Me Up Scotty, which also marked the emergence of Minaj’s stable of split personalities that would color the rest of her career.

Minaj’s inclusion in Wayne’s Young Money mily was cemented after her appearance alongside Drake and Weezy on the "Bedrock single, an appearance that almost fell through after Minaj had to leave the recording sessions to honor a prior engagement. When she learned that Wayne had kicked her off the track, she scheduled a dinner with her mentor and dropped a rhyme that he just couldn’t ignore. Bedrock became a hit, and Minaj’s path to stardom was now carved in stone.

In her verse on Kanye West’s track Monster Nicki Minaj boasts that she makes 50k for a verse no album out, alluding to the ct that even without releasing a proper LP, Minaj has risen to hip-hop’s upper echelon. With her slew of mixtapes, and cameos on songs by everyone from Ludcaris to Christina Aguilera, Minaj has set the standard for female rappers, and has the music world salivating over the release of her upcoming debutPink Friday. We already know that Drake and Eminem make appearances on the record, and Minaj’s relentless use of Twitter has hinted toward more surprises in store. We’re particularly excited for Minaj’s collaboration withEminem, in which their respective alter egos -- Roman Zolanski and Slim Shady respectively -- square off on the track Roman’s Revenge. Expect fireworks, and expectPink Fridayto be one of the highest selling albums of the year.

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