Nicki Minaj Essentials

To call Nicki Minaj one of the greatest female MCs of all time is to add an unnecessary qualifier to a much simpler truth: Nicki Minaj is one of the greatest MCs of all time, period. The Queens-bred spitter’s verses have provoked scrunched-up faces since around the time of 2009’s Beam Me Up Scotty mixtape, a project so impactful that she would repurpose it for streaming some 12 years later (with the addition of the equally spectacular Lil Wayne and Drake collab “Seeing Green”). Before celebrating an anniversary though, Minaj built her reputation in hip-hop the old-fashioned way, verse by verse, dazzling fans of artists like Ludacris (“My Chick Bad”), Big Sean (“Dance (A$$) [Remix]”), Trey Songz (“Bottoms Up”) and Yo Gotti (“Rake It Up”)—to name but a few—with scene-stealing guest verses. (What Minaj did to Kanye West’s “Monster”, in particular, is something likely to be studied by MCs for generations to come.) “Plays well with others” was the read on Minaj from the very beginning, with the MC going on to make magic with some of the biggest voices in hip-hop and R&B, namely Beyoncé (“Flawless [Remix]”), Ariana Grande (“Side to Side”) and her Young Money stablemate, Drake (“Truffle Butter”, “Up All Night”, “No Frauds”, “Make Me Proud”). And did we mention she can sing? That’s right, the queen of rap has pipes, and when she slows things down and shows some emotion (“Right By My Side”, “Starships”, “Right Thru Me”), it’s straight to the top of the pop charts.