For the most part, I really do try to ignore Nicki Minaj. I don’t actively hate her or anything, I just think she’s trying to do her own spin on Lady Gaga’s crazy “living cartoon” shtick, and it’s a famewhore move which doesn’t inspire confidence in her “originality”. Plus, her voice kind of grates. Still, I have a passing interest in her, and I don’t think I’ve ever read any interview with her, so the quotes from her Cosmo interview (for the November issue) are interesting. Nicki talks about how she was in a very hard place just a few years ago, but things have gotten better now:
On her struggles a few years ago: “I kept having doors slammed in my face. I felt like nothing was working. I had moved out on my own, and here I was thinking I’d have to go home.”
She had suicidal thoughts: “It was just one dead end after another. At one point, I was, like, ‘What would happen if I just didn’t wake up?’ That’s how I felt. Like, ‘Maybe I should just take my life?'”
On where she sees herself in 5-10 years: “I’ll have hundreds of millions of dollars. I will have put out five albums and will have an Oscar and Grammys. And I will be getting married and, a couple of years after that, will have a bun in the oven. My whole life is about being Nicki Minaj now. It’s a never-ending saga.”
I don’t begrudge her the “suicidal thoughts” admission – that’s her experience, and I’ll buy that she actually did contemplate it and she really was in such a dark place (as opposed to her just saying a bunch of stuff now for attention). My only problem is that I do think Nicki should talk more about what got her out of her suicidal depression, what changed for her. Maybe she does and they just haven’t excerpted those parts yet. Still, it’s nice to hear her talk about the vulnerable, less cartoon-y part of her life with such brutal and uncomfortable honesty.
By the way, this is several days old, but I thought it was cute/uncomfortable. An 8-year-old who knows all of the words to Minaj‘s “Super Bass”. (Nicki has seen this video and she tweeted, “I HAVE to meet her. She’s a superstar!”).
Cover courtesy of Cosmo, additional pics by WENN.
Cry for help? or attention?
She’s got some lofty goals!
I don’t know if it was a cry for help or attention.. I know personally there was a low point in my life where I felt the same way, and a lot of the people I know could relate. It’s not something anyone needs to worry about now because it’s in the past. I’m out of my dark place, but I don’t pretend I was never like that.
I think it’s good to know even someone who looks cartooney and fun like her can have those kinds of thoughts. It should keep us all on our feet. We need to check up on the people we love.
I don’t know if she meant it this way, I might be reading WAYY too into it.
The saying goes: be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle.
I love her. Not her costumes though. Millions, Married and Babies – The new American Dream. ;-(
Almost everyone goes through these kinds of dark times, and each individual copes with it differently. Some better than others.
sorry havent read the article just the intro but let me tell you she is no lady gaga!!!! Listen to her music! this girl is super talented.
holy shit this litlle girl is awesome!!!!!!!!
you really gotta watch some of the interviews she does. i think Mtv has a show just on her. i had to get to know her because i have kids n she kinda fell onto their radar. shes extremely talented and seems like a genuinely good person.However, as an adult, listening to her talk, shes a child crying out to be loved. I believe that this “fashion” thing she does is a disguise. She may be feeling better about herself than she has in the past but she definitely has not shown the world her true self…yet.She may not be my cup o tea but Im always behind a young woman coming into her own with the talents that God gave.Unlike Kim K. that is getting paid just for being gorgeous!!!
I’m not really sure why people seem to be frowning on her goals. What’s wrong with her goals? She wants financial security and continued success in a fickle industry that could lose patience with her at any time, and she would like to have a family. Those sound like fine goals to me.
I kind of like Nicki. But, she’s definitely best in small doses. I like that she’s wearing a dress that actually looks like a dress on this cover. She usually looks like she had a horrible accident involving a glue pit and an exploding hello kitty factory, so this is a nice understated change of pace for her.
Surprised you have a passing interest in her though I do kinda love her.
Still I’m sick of Gaga being the origin of all things wacky. Imagine if this was the 80’s, you’d be accusse everyone of trying to look like Gaga.
Honestly I think people get so caught up in stereotyping folks they forget there are real people beneath the veneer. Nicki is silly but listen to “Autobiography” if you don’t think she’s deep.
She appeals to me because she uses laughter and silliness as her way of dealing with pain and depression, something I can understand.
nicki have sooooo big ass
She went through a lot dealing with her parents domestic violence, etc. I don’t like Nicki Minaj as an artist, but I actually respect her story and success.When she speaks in interviews, she is very articulate and seems very sweet and genuine. I think if she didn’t use this Barbie image, it would be easier to see through that and probably have a descent female mc.
@Detroitgirl, You nailed it on the head. I have to take her in small doses. Plus what most people have to realize Nicki grew up in the projects first Trinidad than moved to Brooklyn so she wants to be rich so she can provide not just for herself but her entire family.
I think she’s so pretty, I don’t know why she needs to dress like an ass. Or give Lil Wayne a lap dance, for that matter.
i appreciate her attempts at creativity but the execution is so often…. horrible. she needs to upgrade her stylists or costume conjurers or whatever she has.
LOOK IT’S ME! YOU’RE SO UGLY THAT I AM EMBARRASED TO BE SEEN IN PUBLIC WITH YOU! STOP STALKING ME, GET OUT OF MY LIFE AND FIND A LIFE OF YOU’RE OWN.
TALKING TO GOD AND TAKING A WALK WITH JESUS HAS BEEN THE GREATEST STEP IN MY LIFE. CONTINUED EDUCATION HELPS WITH SUICIDE DEPRESSION BECAUSE I CANNOT KEEP EXPERIENCING THE SAME THINGS IN LIFE HENCE THE WORD “DEPRESSION”!
“DUECES”. “I’M MOVING ON TO SOMETHING BETTER”. “SEX AND BYE BYE, SEX AND BYE BYE”
SO DON’T ASS ME THAT AGAIN!
is she wearing a freakin piece of painted chicken round her neck?! that’s beyond quirky, simply the stupidest thing i’ve seen in a while
wtf @ tei
Are we to believe that TEI is being stalked by Nicki Minaj, LOL?
@Vanden, I think it’s a fake chicken wing. At least I hope it’s fake.
I can’t take a person who wears pink fried chicken around their neck seriously. I just cannot.
@Kelly haha i thought that it might be fake! but then i decided that even if it was it was still ridiculous. I know some people love their chicken wings but damn….
@Vanden, I would think that – even if it were covered in acrylic paint – it would start to, ahem, decompose fairly quickly.
Obvs I am really, really bored at work (waiting for callbacks), so I googled covering a chicken wing with paint. I’m obviously not the only person with too much time on their hands, because this is what I found – “how to make a solid gold chicken wing.”
http://www.twelvestone.com/conversations/help-me-make-a-solid-gold-chicken-wing?page=1
@Kelly wow you must be bored! but thanks for the link. Lets see if Minaj can be a trendsetter. Might see teenagers with neon pork chops and legs of lamb around their necks. I’m pretty sure it’s not real but seriously when i look at that monstrosity i can’t help laughing. KFC needs to branch out with a jewellery line
Okay that little girl gave me goose bumps. Wonder if she knows what the lyrics mean?
As for Nicki Minaj, I can’t stand the over the top dressing but I find her oddly fascinating and I kinda like her music. *runs away*
I agree entirely with comment #13, I would’ve written the same thing. I’ve never made it through one of her songs, but there’s still something about her that I end up end up enjoying. I wonder if it’s strange having her parents still be together. I only say this, because I have a friend whose parents were locked in that dynamic, and how her brother and sister secretly wished that their parents would split. To her parents’ credit, they fixed their marriage and today they are genuinely some of the best people I know–really enjoy being around them, separately or together. The troubling times came to a head about four years before I met her, and now that it’s been a good long while since the worst of it, she still has these random pings of anxiety over their future. I do think Nicki had it worse, and it lasted longer, though. That’s a hard situation.
I don’t understand why an 8 year old is allowed to listen to Nicki Minaj enough to know the lyrics.