Nicki Minaj On ‘Nightline’: Don’t Compare Her To Lady Gaga (Watch)

Robbie Daw | April 10, 2012 9:22 am

Nicki Minaj has racked up fans around the world, both young (see: Sophia Grace Brownlee) and old. But make no mistake: her act isn’t necessarily one for kiddies. “I don’t want to offend moms or their children, like when they come pay their money to see a show,” the “Starships” singer/rapstress told Nightline‘s Juju Chang. “But I didn’t come in the game to be an artist that appealed to kids, either.” She also didn’t get into the biz to simply be compared to Lady Gaga, which happens quite often. So does that bother her? “Offend me? No. Irks me? Yeah,” Minaj told Chang. “First of all, I’m a rapper. First of all, I’m from southside Jamaica, Queens. What are the similarities?” To prove her point on the Gaga comparisons, Nicki turned the tables on Juju. “Why don’t I turn the cameras around on you?” she asked. When Chang suggested that perhaps its the wigs that people see as a similarity, Minaj said, “Every female in this game wears wigs… It’s getting tired now to me. At first I was like, okay, it’s cool. Ha ha, when they get to know me, they’ll understand me. Gaga’s a fantastic artist. You know, she’s paved her way. She’s opened her own lane. But I feel like I have my own lane. And we never cross, ever!”

The diva, whose sophomore LP Roman Reloaded was released last week, went on to describe what it was like to grow up in a household where she witnessed what she says was “a lot” of violence at the hands of her formerly-crack-addicted father.

“My father was abusive. It would be like a real bad outburst and we were afraid for [my mother’s] life,” Nicki recounted. “Because whenever he would have a real bad outburst, he would threaten to kill her… I wanted to kill him. I wished he was dead.”

What do you think of Nicki’s sitdown with Nightline? Did you learn something new about the award-winning femcee? Let us know below, or by hitting us up on Twitter and Facebook!