This title examines the fascinating life of Nicki Minaj. Readers will learn about Minaj's childhood, family, education, and rise to fame. Colorful graphics, oversize photos, and informative sidebars accompany easy-to-read, compelling text that explores Minaj's early interest in music and talent in songwriting that led to her successful mixtapes and eventually the release of her albums Pink Friday and Pink Friday…Roman Reloaded. Minaj's music awards, work with charitable groups, and unique style are also described. Features include a table of contents, glossary, selected bibliography, Web links, source notes, and an index, plus a timeline and fun facts. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.

Chronicles the life and career of the stylish hip-hop star.

As USA TODAY, The Nation's No. 1 Newspaper, puts it, Nicki Minaj is a "hip-hop comet...a talented rhyme-spitter who fluidly shifts from hard-core grit to Barbie-doll cute." Growing up poor in Queens, New York, with a drug- and alcohol-addicted father, Minaj dreamed of being a soap opera star so she could afford to buy her mother a house. When Minaj was in her early twenties, a street mix tape got her noticed. Just a few years later, she blasted into the mainstream with seven singles in the Hot 100, beat out many of the boys with her ranking as MTV's No. 4 best Hip-Hop MC, and scored her second No. 1 album on the Billboard 200. And, says Minaj, she’s just getting started!

Explores Onika Tanya Marej's spectacular transformation from early childhood in Trinidad via her days as an unknown rapper on the New York underground scene to fully-fledged songwriter, international star and chart topper

This insightful analysis of the broad impact of hip-hop on popular culture examines the circulation of hip-hop through media, academia, business, law, and consumer culture to explain how hip-hop influences thought and action through our societal institutions. How has hip-hop influenced our culture beyond the most obvious ways (music and fashion)? Examples of the substantial power of hip-hop culture include influence on consumer buying habits—for example, Dr. Dre's Beats headphones; politics, seen in Barack Obama's election as the first "hip-hop president" and increased black political participation; and social movements such as various stop-the-violence movements and mobilization against police brutality and racism. In Communicating Hip-Hop: How Hip-Hop Culture Shapes Popular Culture, author Nick Sciullo considers hip-hop's role in shaping a number of different aspects of modern culture ranging from law to communication and from business to English studies. Each chapter takes the reader on a behind-the-scenes tour of hip-hop's importance in various areas of culture with references to leading literature and music. Intended for scholars and students of hip-hop, race, music, and communication as well as a general audience, this appealing, accessible book will enable readers to understand why hip-hop is so important and see why hip-hop has such far-reaching influence.

How do you define a real artist? Is being a good singer, actor or dancer enough? Talent is either innate or enhanced through constant practice, and it is one of the requirements to become a certified artist. However, the ability to touch other people’s lives, influence them through your acts and be able to change in the society is something worthy of praise, recognition and of course admiration from millions of people. One great example of this kind of artists is Kanye West, who has contributed to the world of hip hop. He is a kind of artist that pursues whatever he thinks is best for the art and music industry. Through his unique sound and style of music, he is considered one of the most admired, popular and influential people in the industry. Kanye West is known for being full of contradictions. He is materialistic but religious, arrogant or big headed but self-deprecating. And he is remarkably rude but also sensitive. Despite some of his negative aspects or attributes as a person, people still see him as a person with a good side, which even makes him more worthy of admiration. Instead of sublimating those conflicts, he shows them off through his music!

This set covers all aspects of international hip hop as expressed through music, art, fashion, dance, and political activity. Hip hop music has gone from being a marginalized genre in the late 1980s to the predominant style of music in America, the UK, Nigeria, South Africa, and other countries around the world. Hip Hop around the World includes more than 450 entries on global hip hop culture as it includes music, art, fashion, dance, social and cultural movements, organizations, and styles of hip hop. Virtually every country is represented in the text. Most of the entries focus on music styles and notable musicians and are unique in that they discuss the sound of various hip hop styles and musical artists' lyrical content, vocal delivery, vocal ranges, and more. Many additional entries deal with dance styles, such as breakdancing or b-boying/b-girling, popping/locking, clowning, and krumping, and cultural movements, such as black nationalism, Nation of Islam, Five Percent Nation, and Universal Zulu Nation. Country entries take into account politics, history, language, authenticity, and personal and community identification. Special care is taken to draw relationships between people and entities such as mentor-apprentice, producer-musician, and more.