[News] Nicki Minaj in Complex Magazine [Interview x Pics]

Cover girl.

Toshitaka Kondo of Complex Mag sat down with everyone’s favorite Barb, Nicki Minaj for an interview for the publications upcoming issue. She looks beautiful and the interview really puts perspective on where her mind is, personally and professionally. Read on:

Discovered by Lil Wayne on a street DVD, Nicki Minaj enjoyed an early buzz that, while strong, hinged on a common archetype: a female rapper who wasn’t hard to look at. But after a year in which the 26-year-old Queens native, born Onika Tanya Maraj, contributed sexually explicit and surprisingly self-aware verses for a slew of Young Money bangers (“Bedrock,” “Up All Night,” and “Roger That”) and became the go-to gal for Usher (“Lil Freak”), Robin Thicke (“Shakin’ It 4 Daddy”), Ludacris (“My Chick Bad”), and Mariah Carey (“Up Out My Face”), she transcended hood-ornament status to be one of the hottest rappers in the game, period.

Her penchant for animated accents and a Harajuku-influenced love for colorful getups begat a cult of personality so strong that even a big-budget disaster like her poorly received first single, “Massive Attack,” couldn’t hold her down. Nicki simply licked her wounds (if only we had been there to help) and came back with the sweet and sultry “Your Love,” which became the first female single to top the Billboard rap charts in eight years. With her debut, Pink Friday, due in November, we’ll soon have a clearer view of which Nicki will be remembered. But whether mold-shattering superstar or Young Money footnote, one thing is clear: She’ll be the one calling the shots.

Complex: Everyone has this image of you as a cartoon character with outlandish wigs, but at our shoot today you were much more low-key.

Nicki Minaj: [Laughs.] Every woman is a character—but people need to see I’m a regular human. It’s like you wear a pink wig and you’re no longer human all of sudden. You’re a thing. Like today [the photographer] was like, “Where is that Nicki Minaj smile?” But this shoot doesn’t call for the Nicki Minaj smile. You guys wanted me subdued, so I’m gonna give you a different side. I’m not gonna pull a string and be like, “It’s Barbie, bitch!”

Is it intimidating to know that, besides The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill, there are very few indisputable classic female rap albums?

Nicki Minaj: I want to do well, but I don’t think I’m intimidated. People’s expectations of what I’m capable of doing are very low. People have been used to hearing little one-liners and me play around.

You think people still underestimate you, even with the success you’ve been having?

Nicki Minaj: Absolutely. A lot of people don’t know I wrote all the hooks on the album. I arranged the music, did the transitions. [Other female rappers] are told what to do, but I run my entire empire; I don’t think people would expect that.

Was it hard for you to get that latitude from the label?

Nicki Minaj: My generation is creative; all we need is a Baby or a Slim to back us. We don’t need you to tell us what to do, but we need you to nurture our decisions, and I think Cash Money understands that. I didn’t have Wayne obviously, since he’s been in jail, so there wasn’t anyone I could have called and asked for help. Actually, when I’ve relied on people in the past is when I’ve made the biggest mistakes. When I trust my gut, I win.

What are some of your biggest mistakes?

Nicki Minaj: I won’t say.

Were they recent mistakes?

Nicki Minaj: Yeah.

Recent as in “Massive Attack”?

Nicki Minaj: [Laughs.] Next question.

What has Wayne’s involvement been on the album?

Nicki Minaj: He really hasn’t had any involvement on it. But to be honest, the album doesn’t sound like Wayne. I mean, he’s my biggest influence, but it doesn’t sound like Wayne’s stuff. It sounds like Nicki.
[READ THE REST HERE]….

[Video] J.Cole’s Complex Magazine Fashion Feature

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The mag hits stands June 8th! 

[Wake Up x Peep This.!] Complex Magazine Interview With Wiz Khalifa

Check out this interview by esteemed publication, Complex Mag and Taylor Gang rising star, Wiz Khalifa….

Complex: Between 4/20 and the release of Kush & Orange Juice, it seems like you must have had a great time last week. How did you spend the holiday?

Wiz Khalifa: I spent it in the studio, actually. I woke up in the morning, rolled like a foot long doob—I put like a quarter in it, like literally, and I smoked the whole thing on Ustream and it burned for like a whole hour and twenty minutes. After I did that, needless to say, I went and raided somebody’s fridge, [Laughs] and then went to the studio.

Complex: What did you eat?

Wiz Khalifa: Turkey burgers…I had some cheese eggs. I had some strawberries—cause I like fresh fruit and shit like that.

Complex: Did you cook the cheese eggs yourself or did you get somebody’s girlfriend to do it for you?

Wiz Khalifa: I had somebody’s bitch cook those cheese eggs. [Laughs.]

Complex: You’ve said you don’t like smoking blunts. Why?

Wiz Khalifa: I don’t smoke any blunts. I used to smoke blunts, but when you smoke the quality of weed that we smoke, you want to taste all that weed. You don’t want the blunt to get in the way. Plus blunts are real bad for you. They make your body ache, you be coughing up brown shit. I need my voice. I don’t want to have blunt damage.

[READ THE REST HERE.]

Do You Love It? [.Kelis Gets Complex.]

Here is a scan and a photo from Kelis’ feature in the February/March issue of Complex magazine.!

[i need these glasses.]

[She finally made this head piece thingy work.]

So dreamers…do you love it?