UPDATE-Nicki Minaj is having an A-mazing year! Pink Friday topped the Billboard 200 charts and spawned several hits including ‘Super Bass’. In her short yet growing career Nicki landed a platinum selling debut album, became the first artist to have seven songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart simultaneously, has a one a of a kind Barbie doll, a MAC campaign and she’s working on building her empire with a clothing line and fragrances. Nicki Minaj is building her Barbz brand. Which is why it was more than fitting that her Barbz won first dibs in her tearful speech on Friday night while accepting the Billboard Rising Star award:
“I just know that I am so incredibly thankful and grateful for a couple little kids. Maybe a few million, I call them my Barbz and I know they are not in here today but I know they will hear me say this. Barbz, I love you so much for being by my side for such a long time.” Minaj also proceeded to thank Billboard. “Billboard, Thank you so much for recognizing me. Even before Superbass and even before Pink Friday, you believed in me.”
Nicki’s gratitude didn’t end there. In the video clip of the award show, Nicki is seen sitting down while the host, Billboard’s Editorial Director Bill Werd calls on Robin Roberts of Good Morning America to briefly interview the Rising Star. Robin highlighted that Nicki spoke so highly of Taylor Swift who also received the Billboard Women of the Year award, Nicki responded:
“First I saw a radio interview and they asked her what song she liked and she said, ‘Can it be a song that didn’t come out yet’ and she started rapping Super Bass. Then she tweeted that she liked ‘Super Bass’ and then all of her fans who had never heard about Nicki Minaj went and purchased it. After Taylor tweeted that, ‘Super Bass’ climbed up 80 something spots the same day on Itunes. And that is why people don’t understand why I keep on Thanking Taylor Swift. This is real.”
It’s definitely “real”. Nicki keeps up her hustle by releasing the audio for her first teaser single, ‘Roman in Moscow’ off her sophomore album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded. Nicki calls the single her “wackiest” track yet. With lyrics like
“I’m big Willie, no bike gear/ I told you bitches last year, I’m a rap bitch nightmare/ That’s why I call you Buzz Lightyear/ ‘Cause by the time you start buzzin’ bitch, you gonna have white hair.” This is certainly not walk the line of Pop.
Beatmakers Streetrunner and Sarom told MTV Mixtape Daily that Nicki brought her best work for Roman in Moscow: “Of course she’s gonna go in on every single track, but she just came off on some other sh– today,” he told Mixtape Daily. “I can’t even believe it.”
The beauty about Nicki’s career as she stated after accepting her award is that she doesn’t want to be defined in a box, today might be pop tomorrow might be rap and everything in between.
Check it below:
Roman In Moscow by NICKI MINAJ
What do you think of ‘Roman in Moscwo’? Watch Nicki Minaj accepting the Billboard Rising Star Award: