7 Classy Quotes From Nicki Minaj’s ‘Billboard’ Cover Story

Robbie Daw | November 12, 2010 1:22 pm

Nicki Minaj, the wig-donning Young Money MC who’s about to unleash her Pink Friday upon the masses (it’s out November 22), graces the cover of Billboard magazine’s latest issue. And do you think the fashion forward hip-hopstress let some zingers roll off her silver tongue? Oh, of course she did. And naturally we felt compelled to round them all up. Read on! * “The last job I had was as an office manager in a little, tiny room where I literally wanted to strangle this guy because he was so loud and obnoxious. I would go home with stress pains in my neck and my back. That’s when I went to my mother and said, ‘Look, I’m not going back to work.’ I’d been fired like 15 times because I had a horrible attitude.”

* “I worked at Red Lobster before that and I chased a customer out of the restaurant once so I could stick my middle finger up at her and demand that she give me my pen back.”

* “When I started rapping, people were trying to make me like the typical New York rapper, but I’m not that. No disrespect to New York rappers, but I don’t want people to hear me and know exactly where I’m from.”

* “When I do songs like ‘Monster,’ when I’m on a record with Jay-Z and Kanye West, when I’m on a record with Wayne and Em—I definitely think the dudes give me respect,. They haven’t come easy but I think people are starting to give me more props.”

* “‘Roman’s Revenge’ is where I’ve become a different human being. I didn’t give a damn who I offended, whose feelings I hurt—this needed to be said, and it cracks me up when I listen to it. I’m a maniac on that track. I knew true hip-hop fans would love this.”

* “I didn’t like [‘Your Love’] and I didn’t put it out. Someone stole it out of the studio and put it on the Internet and I cried because I was mortified. I was humiliated and remember telling Drake, ‘This is going to ruin my career.’ ”

* “I tell people all the time, ‘You want to work for me? You have to give 250,000%,’ because when I’m in the booth, I don’t half-ass it. I demand perfection from everyone around me and if you can’t live up to that, then bye-bye.”

Wow—250,000%? With those kinds of great expectations, Nicki, hopefully you at least offer dental?