Meet the real Nicki Minaj! The “Pink print” rapper covers the Fall Fashion issue of Fader Magazine and reveals details about herself we’ve never heard before (and did we mention how great she looks?!). From her emotional response to questions about her family to her relationship with rumored husband Safaree, Nicki was an open book. Scroll through this gallery for her most insightful quotes…

She’s Evolved As A Business Woman

“I think early on in my career, I was… I was… just a little bit crazy. I took everything personally. That’s just not good, and it’s not healthy.” “I think one of my best attributes now, as a businesswoman and an artist and a professional person, is being able to think before I speak,” she adds. “I’ve learned that everything I think doesn’t necessarily need to be stated.”

She Stresses The Importance Of Females Writing Their Own Rhymes

“My point of saying what I said was that women need to have a perspective” “If we’re out here saying that we’re so confident, and we’re so this and so that, but we don’t even trust ourselves to write down our own thoughts and spit it on a beat?” “It just doesn’t add up.” “I knew those were Lauryn’s words [“The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”], and it made me fall in love with mind.”

She Thinks The Business Kills People

“I was making a point to say that the business kills so many people and we don’t even realize it,” she says. “I can only imagine how many people in this business have died because they may not have wanted to… to be embarrassed publicly. We care so much about what the world thinks that we don’t live, really.” But what had happened to her? Had she fainted or had a panic attack? “I don’t even want to talk about it,”

She Prefers The LA Atmosphere

“LA makes me feel good inside,” she says. “New York is too cold, too rainy, too compact. I ain’t got time for all of that, child.”

She Likes To Keep Her Private Life, Private!

“Asked if she’s always taken pains to keep private, Nicki brusquely offers, ‘Yup.’ I mention that there are new tabloid rumors that she and Samuels were recently engaged, and she stares straight ahead for several moments, expressionless, as though she’s trying to will the question away.”

She Was Afraid To Go Mainstream

“I remember when I started doing mainstream stuff,” she says, “and I was like, ‘Oh my god, are they gonna like me, or are they not gonna like me?’ At the beginning, I was very nervous.”
“I felt like my pop music made me have to retell my story. My credibility as an MC—I never thought I would have to explain that,” she says. “I thought it was so evident that I belonged here [in hip-hop].”

She Cries When Talking About Her Family

Hip-Hop Needs Her

“Looking back now, I love that I was pushed to reinvent myself,” she says, “because when I sit back and I really look, I need hip-hop, and hip-hop needs me.”

She’s Confident

“Occasionally, Nicki says, fans will remind her of a freestyle she did long ago, and she’ll revisit her early material. “And when I look back, I go, ‘Damn, I was kinda good!’”

She Looks Up To Lil Wayne As A King

“But I don’t think I’ll ever feel like he’s my peer because of how much he’s done for me. I’ll always think of him like…a king.” “I give Wayne credit because he saw me and pretty much picked me out of a lineup, and he knew enough to run with Drake as well,” she continues. “From early on, he was so generous with helping with helping younger artists, and it paid off well for him.”

Her Fans Keep Her Grounded

“For my diehard fans from five or six years ago,” she says. “But it’s hard. No matter what, you kind of need the people who know you from the mainstream to fill those venues.” Nicki considered scaling down the venues, but “then my fans reminded me, ‘We can’t all fit in the club! We’re going to be heartbroken. We’re going to be fighting.”

She Doesn’t Plan On Stopping Anytime Soon!

When asked if she’s ever considered dialing back on any of the extracurriculars, Nicki is firm. “Helllllll no,” she says. “I’ve done things where people are like, ‘Uhhhh,’” she says. “But every time I do a business venture or something that isn’t the norm for a female rapper, I pat myself on the back. It’s important that corporate America can see a young black woman being able to sell things outside of music.”