Onika Maraj (Born December 8, 1984) known as Nicki Minaj is a female rapper from Southside Jamaica. She grew up in Queens, New York. Nicki Minaj is of African-American, Trinidadian, and Indo-Asian desent. She lived in a troubled home, with a father on drugs and a struggling single mother. Despite her hectic environment, Minaj went on to graduate from LaGuardia High School in Manhattan where she studied singing and acting.