She's performed at Super Bowl XLVI with Madonna and had one of the biggest hits of 2011 with "Super Bass," but success didn't come easy for Nicki Minaj.
"I felt like I had something to prove to everyone who said a female rapper could not make an album unless she was talking about her p-ssy," Minaj tells the February/March issue of VIBE. "And so I went above and beyond to prove that I could not talk about sex and not talk about my genitalia and still have a successful album."
Minaj's first CD, Pink Friday, debuted at No. 2 in 2010, selling 375,000 copies. It marked the second-highest sales week for a female rapper since Lauryn Hill released The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in 1998.
The "Starships" rapper (real name: Onika Maraj) says she was able to make a name for herself in the hip-hop community by staying true to her artistic vision.
"It's not hard to get your way when it's your way or the highway," Minaj tells VIBE. "In the beginning, if people didn't know me they'd probably assume I wasn't smart or wasn't business savvy. But once you sit and talk to me, it's a different story."
Minaj's sophomore album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, hits stores April 3.
