Nicki Minaj is an award-winning female rap artist responsible for chart-topping rap songs such as ‘Bang Bang’ and ‘Anaconda.’ Yet despite her success in music, there are questions whether Nicki Minaj writes her own songs by herself, or uses a ghostwriter.
Over the course of her career, Nicki Minaj has maintained that while she collaborates with artists, she writes all of her own songs. She has faced continuous rumours questioning her songwriting abilities, which she always denied and defended herself against.
Read more about Nicki Minaj’s successful career in music, how she writes her songs and how she has stood up against rumours attacking her songwriting capabilities in the past.
Her Own Success and Own Songs
Nicki Minaj was born under the name Onika Tanya Maraj- Petty on December 8th, 1982 in Saint James, Trinidad.
When she was five years old, she and her family moved to Queens, New York, which is where Minaj got into music under the stage name ‘Nicki Minaj.’
While she started being a backup singer for local rap singers in New York, she quickly attracted the attention of rapper Lil Wayne, who signed her under his record label.
Minaj released her first album, ‘Pink Friday’, in 2010, and grew popular for songs such as ‘Super Bass’, ‘Starships’, ‘Anaconda’ and ‘Bang Bang.’ She has distinguished herself for her quick-spoken rap flow, provocative lyrics and use of alter egos and accents in her rapping.
Since then, Minaj has been cited as one of the most influential female rap artists of all time. She has accumulated the most entries among women of all genres on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, won 6 American Music Awards, 4 Billboard Music Awards and been nominated for a staggering 10 Grammys.
All throughout her career, Minaj has always maintained that she writes her own music and lyrics.
To show how passionate she is about her own songwriting, she decided to give her fans an exclusive insight into her creative songwriting process in an interview in 2018.
She explained: ‘I have written a song in my head in the shower.’
Elaborating on the complex writing process, she admitted that a change of scenery can help: ‘In terms of lyrics, […] I find it’s confining to write in the studio.’
Ultimately, Minaj affirmed her love for songwriting and added that to her, ‘the essence of rap is fun.’
Putting the Rumours to Rest
Despite her persistent success in the music industry, Minaj has faced persistent backlash over her songwriting skills and repeated questions whether she employs ghostwriters.
In 2016, Iggy Azalea called Nicki’s songs into question during a TV appearance and said that ‘I have just as many people on my writing credits as [Nicki Minaj] has on hers.’
Similarly, when the 2018 song ‘Big Bank’ came out featuring YG, Nicki Minaj, Big Sean and 2 Chainz, Minaj was slammed on social media over questions whether Eminem had written Minaj’s verse.
Nicki Minaj then decided to put such rumours to rest once and for all. In an impassioned tweet, she addressed these rumours head-on. She said:
‘I will always write my own!!! Even if it means not being able to drop as frequent as I want to, I will never go out like that!!! I’m proud of my brain. I hold my own with all the men in this game. It’s sad y’all always try to take away my accomplishments.’
Now, one can only guess that Nicki Minaj will always have to face such rumours and defend herself over her songwriting skills.
But knowing Nicki, she will always have her successful career to fall back on and use as her defense against such ongoing allegations.