It’s seems a bit unlikely that Nicki Minaj’s future with Young Money would be in jeopardy considering she set a record by placing seven singles on Billboard magazine’s “Hot 100” singles chart. But that was exactly the prospect she faced when Lil Wayne contemplated kicking her out of Young Money after she dropped off the second leg of his “I Am Music” tour.
“I started to record by myself and I lost track of what I was doing and who I wanted to be,” Nicki told Billboard. “It wasn’t until I linked back up with Wayne that he gave me this speech. He said, ‘What happened? You were hot,’ and it just hurt me so much. I wanted to prove to him that I was still hot. It hurt my ego so bad that I went back with a vengeance.”
Interestingly enough, it would be Nicki Minaj and her faux husband and fellow Young Money cohort, Drake, who helped keep the Young Money ship afloat while Lil Wayne was incarcerated. While Lil Wayne’s I Am Not A Human Being and Drake’s Thank Me Later respectively helped buoy the label’s sales, six of Nicki Minaj’s feature appearances account for nearly $4.3 million in sales. The ability to brand herself has translated into other ventures, as Nicki is reportedly working with MAC makeup to start a signature line.
