‌:
Colon
ː  ：  ∶ IPA triangular colon  Fullwidth colon  Ratio
Punctuation apostrophe ( ’ ' ) brackets ( [ ], ( ), { }, ⟨ ⟩ ) colon ( : ) comma ( , ، 、 ) dash ( ‒, –, —, ― ) ellipsis ( …, ..., . . . ) exclamation mark ( ! ) full stop/period ( . ) guillemets ( « » ) hyphen ( ‐ ) hyphen-minus ( - ) question mark ( ? ) quotation marks ( ‘ ’, “ ”, ' ', " " ) semicolon ( ; ) slash‌/stroke‌/solidus ( /,  ⁄  ) Word dividers space ( ) ( ) ( ) interpunct ( · ) General typography ampersand ( & ) at sign ( @ ) asterisk ( * ) backslash ( \ ) bullet ( • ) caret ( ^ ) dagger ( †, ‡ ) degree ( ° ) ditto mark ( 〃 ) inverted exclamation mark ( ¡ ) inverted question mark ( ¿ ) number sign‌/pound‌/hash ( # ) numero sign ( № ) obelus ( ÷ ) ordinal indicator ( º, ª ) percent, per mil ( %, ‰, ‱ ) pilcrow ( ¶ ) prime ( ′, ″, ‴ ) section sign ( § ) tilde ( ~ ) underscore‌/understrike ( _ ) vertical bar‌/broken bar‌/pipe ( ¦, | ) Intellectual property copyright symbol ( © ) registered trademark ( ® ) service mark ( ℠ ) sound recording copyright ( ℗ ) trademark ( ™ ) Currency currency (generic) ( ¤ ) currency (specific) ( ₳ ฿ ₵ ¢ ₡ ₢ ₠ $ ₫ ৳ ₯ € ƒ ₣ ₲ ₴ ₭ ℳ ₥ ₦ ₧ ₱ ₰ £ ₹ ₨ ₪ ₸ ₮ ₩ ¥ ៛ ) Uncommon typography asterism ( ⁂ ) tee ( ⊤ ) up tack ( ⊥ ) index/fist ( ☞ ) therefore sign ( ∴ ) because sign ( ∵ ) interrobang ( ‽ ) irony punctuation ( ؟ ) lozenge ( ◊ ) reference mark ( ※ ) tie ( ⁀ ) Related diacritical marks whitespace characters non-English quotation style ( « », „ ” ) In other scripts Chinese punctuation
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The colon, in Unicode U+003A : colon (HTML: :), is a punctuation mark consisting of two equally sized dots centered on the same vertical line.

Punctuation: colon[link]

Use of Colon[link]

A colon informs the reader that what follows the mark proves, explains, or lists elements of what preceded the mark.

The Bedford Handbook describes several uses of a colon. For example, one can use a colon after an independent clause to direct attention to a list, an appositive, or a quotation. Also, it can be used between independent clauses if the second summarizes or explains the first. Furthermore, one may use a colon after the salutation in a formal letter, to indicate hours and minutes, to show proportions, between a title and subtitle, and between city and publisher in bibliographic entries. ^[1]

Luca Serianni, an Italian scholar who helped to define and develop the colon as a punctuation mark, identified four punctuational modes for it: syntactical-deductive, syntactical-descriptive, appositive, and segmental.^[2] Although Serianni wrote this guide for the Italian language, his definitions apply also to English and many other languages.

Syntactical-deductive[link]

The colon introduces the logical consequence, or effect, of a fact stated before.

There was only one possible explanation: the train had never arrived.

Syntactical-descriptive[link]

In this sense the colon introduces a description; in particular, it makes explicit the elements of a set.

I have three sisters: Daphne, Rose, and Suzanne.

The syntactical-descriptive applies to the separation of the hour, minute, and second in abbreviated measures of time.^[3][4]

The concert begins at 21:45.

The rocket launched at 09:15:05.

Similarly, the syntactical-descriptive colon separates chapter and verse numbers in citations of passages in widely-studied texts, such as epic poetry, religious texts, and the plays of William Shakespeare.^[4]

John 3:14–16 or John III:14–16 refers to verses 14 through 16 of chapter three of the Gospel of John.

Appositive[link]

The colon introduces an appositive independent clause. In other words, the sentence after the colon is in apposition to the one before the colon.

Luruns could not speak: He was drunk.^[5]

An appositive colon also separates the subtitle of a work (which is a noun phrase) from its principal title (another noun phrase).

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Segmental[link]

A segmental colon, like a dash or quotation mark, introduces speech. The segmental function was once a common means of indicating an unmarked quotation on the same line. The following example is from the grammar book The King's English:

Benjamin Franklin proclaimed the virtue of frugality: A penny saved is a penny earned.

This form is still used in written dialogues, such as in a play. The colon indicates that the words following an individual's name are spoken by that individual.

Patient: Doctor, I feel like a pair of curtains.
Doctor: Pull yourself together!

Use of capitals[link]

Use of capitalization or lower-case after a colon varies. In British English, the word following the colon is in lower case unless it is a proper noun or an acronym, or if it is normally capitalized for some other reason. However, in American English, many writers capitalize the word following a colon if it begins an independent clause (i.e., a complete sentence). This follows the guidelines of some modern American style guides, including those published by the Associated Press and the Modern Language Association. The Chicago Manual of Style,^[6] however, requires capitalization only when the colon introduces a direct quotation or two or more complete sentences.^[7]

In many European languages the colon is usually followed by a lower-case letter (unless the upper case is due to other reasons, such as a proper noun). However, usage differs from this in German, where an upper-case letter may be used only if the sentence after the colon could stand alone without the preceding sentence (otherwise one may judge freely according to the relative independency of the two assertions),^[8] and in Dutch, where an upper-case letter must be used if the colon is followed by a quotation or an enumeration of complete sentences, although in all other cases a lower-case letter should be used.^[9]

Spacing[link]

A thin space is traditionally placed before a colon and a thick space after it. In English-language modern high-volume commercial printing, no space is placed before a colon and a single space is placed after it. In French-language typing and printing, the traditional rules are preserved.

One or two spaces may be and have been used after a colon. The older convention (designed to be used by monospaced fonts) was to use two spaces after a colon. The newer convention (designed for proportional fonts) is that one space is sufficient. See also Double spacing at the end of sentences.

History[link]

English colon is from Latin colon (plural cola), itself from Greek κῶλον "limb, member, portion", in rhetoric or prosody especially a part or section of a sentence or a rhythmical period of an utterance. In palaeography, a colon is a clause or group of clauses written as a line. The OED cites William Blades' The life and typography of W. Caxton (1882), p. 126: "The Greek grammarians [...] called a complete sentence a period, a limb was a colon, and a clause a comma."

Use of the : symbol to mark the discontinuity of a grammatical construction, or a pause of a length intermediate between that of a semicolon and that of a period, was introduced in English orthography around 1600. John Bullokar's An English expositor (1616) glosses Colon as "A marke of a sentence not fully ended which is made with two prickes."

John Mason in An essay on elocution (1748) prescribes "A Comma Stops the Voice while we may privately tell one, a Semi Colon two; a Colon three: and a Period four."

Diacritical usage[link]

A special triangular colon symbol is used in IPA to indicate that the preceding sound is long. Its form is that of two triangles, each a bit larger than a point (dot) of a standard colon, pointing toward each other. It is available in Unicode as modifier letter triangular colon, Unicode U+02D0 (ː). A regular colon is often used as a fallback when this character is not available, and in the practical orthography of some languages which have a phonemic long/short distinction in vowels.

If the upper triangle is used without the lower one, it designates a "half-long" vowel.^[10]

Word-medial separator[link]

In Finnish and Swedish, the colon can appear inside words in a manner similar to the English apostrophe, between a word (or abbreviation, especially an acronym) and its grammatical (mostly genitive) suffixes. In Swedish, it also occurs in names, for example Antonia Ax:son Johnson (Ax:son for Axelson). In Finnish it is used in loanwords and abbreviations; e.g., USA:han for the illative case of "USA". For loanwords ending orthographically in a consonant but phonetically in a vowel, the apostrophe is used instead: e.g. show'n for the genitive case of the English loan "show" or Versailles'n for the French place name Versailles.

Abbreviation[link]

The colon is used to abbreviate Sankt (Swedish for "Saint"), rendering it as S:t, such as in the Stockholm metro station S:t Eriksplan. The colon was also used to mark abbreviations in early modern English.^[11][12]

Letter[link]

The colon is also used as a grammatical tone letter in Budu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Sabaot in Kenya, in some Grebo in Liberia, and in Papua New Guinea: Erima, Gizra, Go꞉bosi, Gwahatike, Kaluli, Kamula, Kasua, Kuni-Boazi, and Zimakani.^[13] The Unicode character used for the tone letter U+A789 ꞉ modifier letter colon is different from the punctuation (U+003A), as well from IPA's triangular colon U+02D0.

Mathematics and logic[link]

The colon is used in mathematics, cartography, model building and other fields to denote a ratio or a scale, as in 3:1 (pronounced “three to one”). When a ratio is reduced to a simpler form, such as 10:15 to 2:3, this may be expressed with a double colon as 10:15::2:3; this would be read "10 is to 15 as 2 is to 3". Unicode provides a distinct character U+2236 ∶ ratio for mathematical usage.

The notation |G:H| may also denote the index of a subgroup.

The notation ƒ: X → Y indicates that ƒ is a function with domain X and codomain Y.

The combination with an equal sign, := , is used for definitions.

In mathematical logic, when using set-builder notation for describing the characterizing property of a set, it is used as an alternative to a vertical bar (which is the ISO 31-11 standard), to mean “such that”. Example:

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): S = \{x \in \mathbb{R} : 1 < x < 3 \}

(S is the set of all x in Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \mathbb{R}
(the real numbers) such that x is strictly greater than 1 and strictly smaller than 3)

In type theory and programming language theory, the colon sign after a term is used to indicate its type, sometimes as a replacement to the Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \in

symbol. Example:

Failed to parse (Missing texvc executable; please see math/README to configure.): \lambda x\cdot x\ :\ A\to A

A colon is also sometimes used to indicate a tensor contraction involving two indices, and a double colon (::) for a contraction over four indices.

Computing[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2011)

In computing, the colon character is represented by ASCII code 58, (HTML &#58;) and is located at Unicode code-point U+003A (colon). Scripts comprising wide characters, such as kanji, use a full-width equivalent, located at Unicode code point U+FF1A ： fullwidth colon.

The colon is quite often used as a special control character in URLs,^[14] computer programming languages, in the path representation of several file systems (such as HFS), and in many operating systems commands. It is often used as a single post-fix delimiter, signifying a token keyword had immediately preceded it or the transition from one mode of character string interpretation to another related mode. Some applications, such as the widely used MediaWiki, utilize the colon as both a pre-fix and post-fix delimiter.

Several programming languages use the colon for various purposes. In particular, MATLAB uses the colon as a binary operator that generates vectors, as well as to select particular portions of existing matrices. A lot of programming languages, most notably Pascal, and Ada use colon immediately followed by an equality sign, := in which case the colon and the equality sign are considering to compose to an independent assignment sign, in Unicode preferably^{[citation needed]} encoded as U+2254 ≔ colon equals. In BASIC it's used as a separator between the operators in the line. In Forth, colon precedes definition of a new word. For the double colon used in computer programming, see the scope resolution operator, and class member access of C++. The colon is also used as part of the ?: conditional operator in C and other languages. In Python, which uses indentation to indicate blocks, the colon is used in statements to indicate that the next line is the start of an indented block.

Haskell uses a colon (pronounced as “cons”, short for “construct”) as an operator to add an element to the front of a list:^[15] <source lang="haskell">"child" : ["woman", "man"] -- returns ["child","woman","man"]</source>

while a double colon :: is read as "has type of" (confer scope resolution operator):^[16] <source lang="haskell">("text", False) :: ([Char], Bool)</source>

The ML languages (including Standard ML and OCaml) have the above reversed, where the double colon (::) is used to add an element to the front of a list; and the single colon (:) is used for type guards.

APL uses the colon^[17]

• to introduce a control structure element. In this usage it must be the first non-blank character of the line.
• after a label name that will be the target of a :goto or a right-pointing arrow (Note: this style of programming is deprecated and programmers are encouraged to use control structures instead.
• to separate a guard (boolean expression) from its expression in a dynamic function. Two colons are used for an Error guard (one or more error numbers).
• Colon + space are used in class definitions to indicate inheritance.

Goto labels are formed in a DOS batch file by preceding a label name with a colon.

In an IPv6 address colons (and one optional double colon) separate up to 8 groups of 16 bits in hexadecimal representation.^[18] In a URL a colon follows the initial scheme name (like http), and separates a port number from the hostname or IP address.^[14]

In JavaScript, colons are used to define values in an object. <source lang="javascript"> var obj = {

   "name": "Charles",
   "age": 18

} </source>

Internet usage[link]

On the Internet, a colon, or multiple colons, is sometimes used to denote an action or to emote.^{[original research?]} In this use it has the inverse function of quotation marks, denoting actions where unmarked text is assumed to be dialogue. For example:

Tom: Pluto is so small; it should not be considered a planet. It is tiny!

Mark: Oh really? ::Drops Pluto on Tom’s head:: Still think it’s small now?

Colons may also be used for sounds, e.g. ::Click::, though sounds can also be denoted by an asterisk or other punctuation marks.

Colons are also used to represent two vertically aligned eyes in some emoticons (such as :) or :-) for a smiling face), particularly in Western (English-speaking) cultures.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Colon - Definition and examples
• [1] How to use colons and semi-colons
• [2] The colon
• [3] The colon
• [4] The colon

Colon may refer to:

• Colon (anatomy), the final section of the digestive system
• Colon (punctuation), the punctuation mark :
• Colon (rhetoric), a clause which is grammatically, but not logically, complete
• Colon classification, a library classification system named for the use of the punctuation mark
• Colon, Michigan, village located within Colon Township
• Colon, Nebraska, village in Saunders County

See also[link]

• Colón (disambiguation)
• Cologne (disambiguation)
• Fred Colon, Discworld character
• Colonus (in Ancient Rome)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Nicki Minaj
Minaj at 2010 MTV Music Awards
Background information
Birth name	Onika Tanya Maraj
Born	(1982-12-08) December 8, 1982 (age 29)[1] Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago
Origin	South Jamaica, Queens, New York, U.S.
Genres	Hip hop, R&B, pop
Occupations	Rapper, singer-songwriter
Years active	2002–present
Labels	Cash Money Records, Young Money Entertainment, Universal Republic Records, Universal Motown
Associated acts	Young Money
Website	mypinkfriday.com

Onika Tanya Maraj (born December 8, 1982), known by her stage name Nicki Minaj ( /mɪˈnɑːʒ/), is a Trinidadian-born American rapper and singer-songwriter. She was born in Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago and when she was 5 years of age she moved to the New York City borough of Queens, where she grew up.

After releasing three mixtapes between 2007 and 2009 and being signed to Young Money Entertainment in August 2009, Minaj released her debut album, Pink Friday, in November 2010. It quickly became a commercial success, peaking at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 and being certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) a month after its release.^[2][3] She became the first female solo artist to have seven singles on the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time.^[4] Her second single, "Your Love", reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot Rap Songs chart, making Minaj the first female artist to top the chart unaccompanied since 2002.^[5] She also became the first female artist to be included on MTV's Annual Hottest MC List.^[6] Minaj was named the 2011 Rising Star by Billboard.^[7] Her second studio album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded was released on April 3, 2012.

Early life[link]

Maraj was born in 1982^{[1][note 1]} in Saint James, a suburb of Trinidad and Tobago's capital city Port of Spain.^[8][9][10] Her parents are of mixed Indian and Afro-Trinidadian ancestry^[11][12] and she lived in Saint James with her grandmother until age five, because her parents were looking for a place to live in the Queens borough of New York City at the time. Her mother would occasionally visit, and one day, when Minaj was five, her mother picked her up to move to Queens.^[13] According to Minaj, her father drank heavily, took drugs, and once tried to kill her mother by setting the house on fire.^[14]

She attended Elizabeth Blackwell Middle School 210, where she played the clarinet.^[13] She graduated from LaGuardia High School.^[15][16] At LaGuardia, a school specializing in music and the visual and performing arts, Minaj participated in the drama program.^[15] She had initially planned to sing at LaGuardia but lost her voice on the day of the audition.^[15]

Career[link]

2007–09: Mixtapes and Young Money[link]

Minaj released her first mixtape in 2007 after releasing Playtime Is Over with Dirty Money Records. She released another mixtape on July 7, 2008, titled Sucka Free, under the label Be. On April 18, 2009, Minaj released a third mixtape and appeared in XXL magazine.^[17] She won the Female Artist of the Year award at the 2008 Underground Music Awards.^[18] Minaj released Beam Me Up Scotty, another mixtape, in April 2009 under the label of Trapaholics Records; it received positive coverage on both BET and MTV.^[19][20]

In August 2009, Minaj signed a record deal with Young Money Entertainment, with distribution from Universal Motown Records, after fellow American rapper Lil Wayne discovered her and secured the record deal.^[17][21] She then had a solo rap verse in their single "BedRock," which became a commercial success, reaching number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Minaj also appeared on "Roger That", which charted at number 56. The song, and in particular Minaj, received positive reviews from critics.^[22] Both songs were included in Young Money Entertainment's debut collaborative studio album We Are Young Money, which was released in December 2009. The album charted in the top ten on the Billboard 200, reaching number 9 and later receiving a Gold Certification by the RIAA. She was then chosen by Mariah Carey to be featured on her single and music video for "Up Out My Face". Critics praised her collaboration for helping to maintain Carey's feminine image and providing a polite track for the female R&B singer.^[23]

[edit] 2010–11: Pink Friday

Britney Spears and Minaj performing the Femme Fatale Remix of "Till the World Ends" in the Femme Fatale Tour.

After a major record label bidding war, Young Money Entertainment announced on August 31, 2009 that Minaj had been released from a 360 deal with the label in which she retains and owns all of her 360 rights – including merchandising, sponsorships, endorsements, touring and publishing.^[24] In an interview with 95.8 Capital FM, Rihanna stated that after the two collaborated on "Raining Men" from her album Loud that the duo would be teaming up together for a possible second collaboration on Minaj's Pink Friday.^[25] Hip-hop rap artist and producer Kanye West was also confirmed for the album.^[26] On August 3, 2010 Minaj revealed on a Ustream.tv channel that the album's name would be Pink Friday, in reference to Black Friday.^[27]

Pink Friday was released on November 19, 2010 in both standard and deluxe versions.^[28][29] A buzz single, "Massive Attack", was released in April.^[30] In August, Minaj released "Your Love" as the first official single from her debut album. The single peaked at 14 on the Billboard Hot 100, 7 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and topped the Rap Songs chart. Minaj became the first female artist to be included on MTV's Annual Hottest MC List^[6] and the first female artist to top the chart unaccompanied since 2002.^[31] In October 2010, Minaj became the first artist to have seven songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart simultaneously.^[4] Minaj released a joint single with The Black Eyed Peas front man, will.i.am titled, "Check It Out", which is Minaj's most successful single to date in Europe. "Right thru Me" was released September 24, 2010; the music video was released in late October. "Moment 4 Life" was released as the fourth single. The track featured Canadian rapper Drake and was released on December 7, 2010, becoming a success on the Billboard Hot 100. The single peaked at number 5 on the Hot Rap Songs.^[32] The album gained a Platinum certification in the United States a month after the release.^[3]

On January 29, 2011, Minaj appeared on Saturday Night Live as the musical guest, performing "Right Thru Me" and "Moment 4 Life". On February 9, 2011, it was announced that Pink Friday had reached number one on the Billboard 200 in its eleventh week on the chart.^[33] It was hinted by Simon Cowell that Minaj would join the judging panel of the American version of the The X Factor.^[34] Starting in June 2011, Minaj will be supporting Pink Friday by serving as an opening act along with Jessie and the Toy Boys and Nervo on Britney Spears' sixth concert tour, the Femme Fatale Tour, in support of her seventh studio album, Femme Fatale.^[35] She also was featured on the official remix of Spears' track "Till the World Ends" along with Spears and singer Kesha, which charted at number 3 in the US in April 2011.^[36] "Super Bass" was released from Pink Friday in May 2011, the single charted within the top 10 in many countries including; United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada and more.^[37] The song gained positive reviews from critics.^[38][39] Minaj will voice a character in the 3D animated film, Ice Age: Continental Drift, as an unknown character.^[40][41] Minaj is also featured on French DJ David Guetta's 2011 album, Nothing but the Beat on "Where Them Girls At" and "Turn Me On".

[edit] 2011–present: Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded

Minaj's second studio album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, was first announced through Twitter in November 2011 and was released on April 2, 2012 in the United Kingdom and April 3, 2012 in the United States. The album features collaborations with producers Hit-Boy, Dr. Luke, Rico Beats, Kenoe, RedOne and Oak. Cash Money A&R Joshua Berkman told HitQuarters that Minaj was extremely particular about the beats and music she used saying: "She wouldn't just rap or sing on anything – I could give her a thousand tracks and she may only like one or two."^[42] Preceding the album's release, three promotional singles were released: Roman in Moscow (which didn't make the final cut of the album), "Stupid Hoe," and "Roman Reloaded." The album's first single, "Starships", was released on February 14.^[43] "Starships" became Minaj's best-peaking single in the United Kingdom, when it reached a peak of 2. It has also peaked at number 5 on the US Billboard Hot 100, making it her second top 10 arrival following, "Super Bass" in 2011. The music video was released on April 26th, 2012.^[44]

On February 12, 2012, Minaj debuted her song "Roman Holiday" at the 54th Grammy Awards. It was the first song ever performed on the Grammy stage by a solo female rapper.^[45] The exorcism-themed performance drew a mixed response online.^[46][47]

She was featured on Madonna's twelfth studio album, titled MDNA, alongside M.I.A. on its lead single "Give Me All Your Luvin'", for which a music video has been directed by Megaforce.^[48] The trio performed the song for the Super Bowl XLVI halftime show.^[49] She was also featured on a song called "I Don't Give A", another track from the album.

She released her second single, "Right by My Side", which features Chris Brown, on March 27, 2012, after premiering on Minaj's website on March 20, 2012.^[50] Following the album's release, it peaked at number 24 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart. It also peaked in the lower regions of the UK singles chart, at position #101. The third single, "Beez in the Trap", which features 2 Chainz was released to U.S. Urban radio on April 24, 2012. It was premiered on DJ Flex's radio show at Hot 97 on March 20, 2012. It has peaked at number 24 on the US Billboard Rap Songs Chart.^[51] The video was premiered on April 6, 2012 on Minaj's official VEVO account.^[52]

Artistry[link]

Minaj in 2011 during Femme Fatale Tour

Image[link]

Minaj has been noted by the media for her curvaceous figure.^{[53][54][55][56]} In an interview with Vibe Minaj discussed her sexual image stating, "[w]hen I grew up I saw females doing certain things, and I thought I had to do that exactly. The female rappers of my day spoke about sex a lot... and I thought that to have the success they got, I would have to represent the same thing. When in fact I didn’t have to represent the same thing."^[57] In an interview with Interview, Minaj commented on her sexual image again stating, "I made a conscious decision to try to tone down the sexiness, I want people—especially young girls—to know that in life, nothing is going to be based on sex appeal. You’ve got to have something else to go with that.”^[58] Minaj has a tattoo in Chinese characters that reads "上帝與你常在" (shàngdì yǔ nǐ cháng zài)^[59] on her left arm, meaning, "God is always with you."^[60]

Alter egos[link]

While growing up, Minaj's home life was often chaotic, with her parents constantly fighting.^[61] As a means of escape, she would create characters and live her life through them.^[61] In an interview with New York she stated, "To get away from all their fighting, I would imagine being a new person. 'Cookie' was my first identity – that stayed with me for a while. I went on to 'Harajuku Barbie,' then 'Nicki Minaj'. Fantasy was my reality."^[61]

On November 18, 2010, Minaj assumed a different alter-ego named "Nicki Teresa".^[62] Wearing a colorful scarf around her head, she went around as the "healer to her fans" as she visited them at The Garden of Dreams Foundation at Fuse studios in New York City.^[62] Minaj made an appearance on Lopez Tonight on December 6, 2010 and presented a different alter-ego for the Spanish-inspired occasion, named "Rosa" (pronounced Rrrrrosa).^[63]

In April 2012, Minaj was asked if Roman, Martha and Rosa come out in the bedroom saying “No, they don’t come out in the bedroom, but other people come out in the bedroom,” she told Big Boy during his “Backstage Breakfast,” adding, “And there’s only one person that would know who that personality is". Minaj did not name her alter-ego.^[64]

For her debut album, Minaj created another alter-ego named "Roman Zolanski".^[65] She stated that in songs like "Bottoms Up" with Trey Songz it is not Minaj rapping, but instead Roman Zolanski, and claims that Roman is her "twin brother". She claims that he was born inside her, out of rage, and becomes him when she is angry. She has also said 'He is a demon inside her'. Roman has been compared to Eminem's alter ego Slim Shady, and on the song "Roman's Revenge" from Pink Friday, Minaj and Eminem collaborate, using these alter egos.^[66] On the collaboration, she said "The new album is going to have a lot of Roman on it ... And if you're not familiar with Roman, then you will be familiar with him very soon. He’s the boy that lives inside of me. He's a lunatic and he's gay and he'll be on there a lot."^[67] Roman also has a "mother" called "Martha Zolanski",^[68] who also appeared on the song "Roman's Revenge", with a British accent,^[69] and on "Roman Holiday", singing for the first time.^[70][71] Martha appears in the video for "Moment 4 Life" where she appears to be Minaj's magical Godmother. In songs such as "All I Do Is Win (Remix)" it is Minaj rapping.^[65] Minaj stated that on her debut album, fans will get to "meet" Nicki, Roman and Onika.^[65]

Influences[link]

Minaj has stated that artists who have influenced her musical style include Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, Lil Wayne, Lauryn Hill, Jadakiss, Natasha Bedingfield, Foxy Brown, Lil' Kim and Missy Elliott.^[72][73] She was also inspired by Janet Jackson,^[74] Madonna, Britney Spears, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Jones,^[75] M.I.A. and Cyndi Lauper.^[76][77][78]

Product and endorsements[link]

During her career, Minaj has signed contracts with a variety of corporate interests. Companies she contracted with include soft drink manufacturer Pepsi;^[79] Mattel, which produced a custom a Nicki Minaj-themed Barbie;^[80] and MAC Cosmetics, as part of an AIDS-awareness campaign in Latin America.^[81]

Personal life[link]

Minaj is a Christian, and on Christmas Day in 2011, she indicated her faith in Jesus by tweeting John 3:16.^[82][83] In addition, she states that after her father went to rehab and started attending church, "he got saved and started changing his life."^[84] Minaj states that her heroes are "God. And my mother."^[85][86]

While some songs and interviews have implied that Minaj is bisexual,^[87][88] she has said that she does not date nor have sex with women,^[15] but added in an interview with Out magazine, "I don’t date men either."^[89] In an interview with Vibe she commented, "I just embrace all people of all lifestyles and I don’t tell them they are bad people. And I say girls are beautiful and girls are sexy and they need to be told that, and if they don’t have anyone to tell them that and mean it, I’m gonna tell them that. But I feel like people always wanna define me and I don’t wanna be defined."^[90] She reiterated her dislike of being labeled in an interview with Out, saying: "The point is, everyone is not black and white. There are so many shades in the middle, and you’ve got to let people feel comfortable with saying what they want to say when they want to say it."^[89]

During an interview in the May 2010 issue of Details, Minaj was asked if she felt hip-hop was becoming more gay-friendly. She responded, "I think the world is getting more gay-friendly, so hip-hop is too. But it's harder to imagine an openly gay male rapper being embraced, people view gay men as having no street credibility. But I think we'll see one in my lifetime."^[88]

In July 2011, Minaj's cousin Nicholas Telemaque was murdered near his home in Brooklyn, New York City.^[91] Telemaque was referenced in Minaj's song "Champion" in her second studio album.^[92]

Discography[link]

• Pink Friday (2010)
• Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (2012)

Touring[link]

• Pink Friday Tour (2012)

See also[link]

Nicki Minaj portal

• List of awards and nominations received by Nicki Minaj

References[link]

Notes[link]

External links[link]

	Book: Nicki Minaj
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

• Official website
• Nicki Minaj at the Internet Movie Database
• Media related to Nicki Minaj at Wikimedia Commons