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Nicki Minaj is one of the most awarded female rappers of all time, along with Missy Elliot. She has sold 20 million singles as a leading artist, 60 million singles as a featured artist, and more than five million albums globally.
Minaj, whose given name is Onika Tanya Maraj, was born in Trinidad and Tobago and raised in Queens, New York. Minaj was the first female rapper listed on Forbes’ Hip-Hop Cash Kings list . She came in at No. 15 with $6.5 million earnings in 2010-2011.
Nicki Minaj Net Worth: $75 Million
Nicki Minaj’s net worth is $75 million, according to an estimate by Celebrity Net Worth.
She has 10 Grammy nominations under her belt, and has won six American Music Awards, three MTV Video Music Awards, eleven BET Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, the Billboard’s Women Music Awards, and the Rising Star Award. She won a People’s Choice Award for Favorite Hip-Hop Artist in 2013.
Minaj earns most of her earnings through her music.
Here’s what you need to know about Nicki Minaj’s net worth:
1. Most of Her Income Comes From Music Sales, Including Guest Verses
Minaj’s debut album, Pink Friday, was released in November 2010 and sold four million copies worldwide, earning her an estimated $1.89 million. Her album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded was released in April 2012 was certified platinum. It sold more than two million copies worldwide. Her third album, The Pinkprint, sold to an estimated number of 650,000 copies globally. Her compilation albums We are Young Money, Rich Gang, and Rise of an Empire sold 578,000, 294,000, and 422,000, respectively.
Minaj also appears often as a guest on songs from artists like Kanye West, Drake, Romeo Santos, Justin Bieber, Madonna, Trey Songz, The Lonely Island, Big Sean, Beyonce, and more. According to Bankrate, she earns $50,000 per verse.
Minaj has also worked as a celebrity judge on American Idol for one season, for which she was paid $12 million.
She has appeared in the movies Ice Age: Continental Drift, Barbershop: The Next Cut, The Other Woman, and Lake Placid vs. Anaconda. She was the voice of woolly mammoth Steffie in Ice Age: Continental Drift and starred alongside Cameron Diaz in The Other Woman. She was awarded a Teen Choice Awards 2016 nomination for her appearance in the Barbershop: The Next Cut.
Minaj has her own MAC Cosmetics collection. The Viva Glam lipstick she did with the brand was Mac’s highest selling Viva Glam lipstick ever. She also has her own fragrance line, which sold quickly thanks to her promotion on social media.
Minaj is also a shareholder in the Tidal streaming service.
She has endorsed Adidas and Pepsi, the latter of which was a multi-million dollar deal including a commercial.
2. She Wasn’t Destined for Success, but Found It Anyway
Minaj was born in Trinidad but relocated to New York City with her family when she was five-years-old. She dreamed of becoming an actress and musician as a teen, and worked numerous jobs in the service industry to make ends meet. She worked as a waitress in a number of restaurants but was fired for being rude more than 15 times.
Minaj was a part of the Brooklyn-based hip-hop group ‘Full Force’ and sang in a recording for the entrance song of WWE wrestler Victoria in 2004. Soon after, she left the group and started on her own. Her first mix-tape was released in 2007 and another followed in 2008.
Early on, Minaj used fantasy personas to reinvent herself. She moonlighted as “Cookie,” and then “Harajuku Barbie” before finding the persona of Nicki Minaj. “Fantasy was my reality,” she said, according to Vogue.
Minaj got a lucky break near the beginning of her career as one of her tracks, I Get Crazy, ranked number 20 on the Hot Rap Songs chart in December 2009. It also charted at No. 37 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in January 2010.
Soon, she was discovered by rapper Lil Wayne in 2009. That was the turning point in her life and career. She signed to Wayne’s label ‘Young Money Entertainment’ shortly after and her debut album, Pink Friday, was released on November 19, 2010. Pink Friday was a commercial blockbuster, selling 376,000 copies its first week and more than two million copies since.
Back when it was still a popular social media form, Minaj was an avid user of Myspace to promote her music. Eventually, she moved on to Twitter.
While she was popular in the hip-hop community, Minaj’s 2012 Super Bowl appearance alongside Madonna made her a national celebrity. A few days later, she released the album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, topped the pop, R&B, and rap charts. It spent seven weeks at number one on the rap chart, according to Billboard.
The hugely popular dance song “Starships” was Minaj’s first breakout music single. It was followed by “Pound the Alarm” and “Va Va Voom.”
The Pinkprint came out on December 12, 2014, featuring big names like Beyoncé, Chris Brown, Ariana Grande, and Drake. It went double platinum.
In April 2018, Minaj released two new songs– “Barbie Tings” and “Chun Li. It is yet to be seen how they do on the charts.
3. She Owns a Barbie Car, Fitting With Her Persona and Song Lyrics
Minaj’s $11.8 million house in Malibu has a large pool and five garages for her collection of luxury cars. The house is decorated with stone and hardwood floors, custom-made millwork, vaulted ceilings, and a half a dozen stone fireplaces, and contains six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a specially-built stone driveway, and an electric drive gate.
She owns a red Lamborghini Gallardo worth around $200,000, as well as a pink Bentley Continental GT that costs around the same amount. This is her ‘Barbie Bentley.’ She also owns a Mercedes and a Ferrari. Because she owns the brand herself, she starred in a Mercedes A-Class commercial.
4. Her Feuds Could Be Seen As Fueling Her Success
Minaj has had a lot of feuds and scandals that have both hurt and helped her success, depending which side you’re on. Minaj’s feud with Jeniffer Lopez on American Idol started with Minaj saying from stage, “I was hoping maybe I could come back and be a guest judge,” adding: “J-Lo, can you scoot over a little bit?” Later, J-Lo called Minaj “petty for starting a Twitter feud with Giuseppe Zanoti. There was also tension when Lopez performed Minaj’s hit “Anaconda” at the AMAs. Both stars have since brushed off any feud.
Minaj’s feud with Mariah Carey included a profanity-rich outburst caught on video.
After the feud Minaj Tweeted, “All I do is compliment u. That’s not enuff? Ur a legend, cheer up. U don’t have to run down ur resume or feel intimidated. Shady McGrady…”
She’s also feuded with Taylor Swift, Cardi B, and more, but recently told Ellen DeGeneres she doesn’t want to fight anymore. “I’m a sweet person,” she said. Whatever her beef is with other celebrities, it hasn’t hurt Minaj’s sales, and has kept her in the spotlight.
5. Her Charity Work Means Well, but In Some Cases Is Misguided
For all her tough talk, Minaj has given plenty of her time and money to charity. She has worked with Mattel, the toy company most famous for Barbies, to create a customized “Minaj Barbie Doll” that was auctioned off. The base price was $1000 and proceeds were donated to Project Angel Food, an organization that provides free food to people with HIV and AIDS. Minaj was affectionately nicknamed “Barbz” by her fans after the auction.
In May 2017, Minaj posted a photo on Instagram of a town in India. In the caption she said: “This is the kind of thing that makes me feel the most proud. The money I’ve sent to this village in India for the last couple years [via my Pastor Lydia Sloley], has gotten them a Computer Center, a Tailoring Institute, a Reading Program and 2 WATER WELLS. We complain about the most ridiculous little things when some ppl don’t even have clean water. Blessings to India. Our work is far from done. I’ll tell you guys more about my charity work in the near future in case you’d like to be a part of it.”
The News Minute, an India-based publication, had a more critical look at how impactful Minaj’s donations had been, and noted that the “village” she mentioned was actually part of Chennai, a major city of more than seven million people.
Also in 2017, she started a charity to help her fans pay their student loans and tuition payments.
She paid for a few of her fans’ college expenses on May 7, 2017, and said more would follow. She said part of the deal would be that students had to make “straight As.”
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