Let’s get something straight. Nicki Minaj is more than just “Not Bad for a Girl.” She’ll straight embarrass some of your favorite same testosterone-fueled MCs. The Queens, N.Y., rhymer born Onika Maraj made a splash with her 2008 mixtape Sucka Free—that was a then-23-year-old Nicki getting her Lil’ Kim on in a raunchy butterfly pose while licking a lollipop. Now the first lady of Young Money has a new mixtape, Beam Me Up Scotty, that’s making noise, and the cinnamon head-turner is now working on her much-anticipated major label debut. Will Nicki Minaj save female rap? She certainly has the goods.

Do you get a little intimidated when people call you the savior of female rap?

I don’t think intimidated is the word. I definitely get excited by it. I don’t want to let anybody down. I’ve always been the type of person to make everybody happy and get things done. I want everything to be 100 percent perfect. I do feel it when people hold me to high expectations.

On your latest mixtape, Beam Me Up Scotty, you covered a diverse range of musical genres from dancehall to club music to hardcore hip hop. Will we see that type of production range on your major studio debut?

I think that the album will be a little bit more focused on one type of sound. But you know, I definitely want to be one of those artists that continue to do their mixtapes. The people that just really love the ‘Street Nicki’ can still get a dose of that; but I think that when the album comes out, it will be more focused on things that you would hear on the radio. It will be more radio-friendly because honestly, those are the type of records that I like to write. I don’t think people know that about me. Records like “Kill da DJ” and stuff like that, I have fun writing that; I have fun singing. Those songs make me happy. So I think I want to make my album more like that. But whatever I do, I always will have those real songs where I talk about real things.

Do you have a specific story you want to get out to the fans?

I have a song I wrote called “Autobiography.” I came from a very intense living situation, with having a parent on drugs and not having a lot of money. So I always want to talk about the real things. But I think 90 percent of my music, I want it to be ‘feel-good music’. I’m already recording tracks for my album, but when it comes time to actually say, ‘this is the album,’ I may be in a completely different space than I’m in right now.

Now as far as the label situation goes, everybody’s been asking the $64,000 question: “What label is Nicki Minaj going to sign with?”

People will know within 30 days. I don’t think I want to wait too much longer than that. In another interview I was basically talking about the other deals that I had seen that other female rappers had signed. I felt like they weren’t treated like a star. I feel like before you sign anything in this business, you have to truly believe that you’re not only a star, but a superstar. When you think of yourself like that, you won’t really just go ahead and sign the first thing that comes your way because you’ll know that all the fame and fortune stuff will happen. Like right now, I’m not concerned with people asking, ‘When are you going to be mainstream?’ I’m not concerned with those things because I know that it’s destined to happen for me. What I’m concerned about is being a female and getting my business in order. Those are things I think a lot of females didn’t think about before. I hope that girls that come after me will remember that Nicki Minaj said, “Get your business in order first and then do what you love to do.” You’ll then be happy on both sides of the spectrum. So that’s what I’m doing. I was being a little hesitant, but we’re looking at contracts right now. You know, we’ll see what happens. I’m just gonna put it in God’s hands and leave it there.

Talk about the experience of being on Lil Wayne’s I Am Music tour. You’re still a relatively new artist and you get to see a superstar on stage sell out every night and have thousands of fans scream his name. That has to be eye-opening, right?

That tour made something inside of me say, Oh my God, I want this! I know that I have this in me, and I want this! It was the best thing that ever happened to me. It made me really kick in into that next gear and say, I’m about to go hard or go home! I have one more chance to prove to the underground world and prove that I am who I say I am. And I did it. I did it with Beam Me Up Scotty. I put out music, it wasn’t just freestyles. It was music; it was talking about a lot of different things like you said. It was showing versatility and showing rap skill, and singing and all of that.

What type of influence has Wayne had on your career?
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