Nicki Minaj Does BlackBook, Shows Human Side: “I’ve lost my peace of mind. I’ve become an image, a robot.”
Nicki Minaj does a more conservative look for the March Issue of BlackBook and shares to be a very intimate and rare side of herself. She talks London, fame and the overwhelming responsibility and pressure of being a star. Peep a few excerpts from her interview:
On her London experience–“It was my first trip to Europe, and it couldn’t have gone any better. From the second we arrived in London, there were paparazzi everywhere. Kids were camped outside the hotel. They (fans) stood behind it for hours and hours, and they were very respectful and sweet, but something weird happened every time they saw me, like, ‘Oh my god, there she is! I need to get her right now!’”
On how her momma’s handling her fame: “My mother can’t grasp the magnitude of my success. She couldn’t tell Beyoncé from Alicia Keys, and when I try to explain the far-fetched things I’m doing, she’d rather talk about having to call the plumber.”
On being an entertainer: “I’m definitely playing a role. I’m an entertainer, and that’s what entertainers do. That’s what people pay for. They don’t pay to see me roll out of bed with crust in my eyes, and say: Hey guys, this is me, authentic. They pay for a show. When I started doing all that weird stuff, I never thought in a million years that it would mean more people would start listening to my music. It was basically a ‘fuck you’ to everyone who told me what to do and who to be.”
On the fame being overwhelming: “I’ve lost my peace of mind. I no longer know who’s my friend or my enemy. I don’t know if they’re calling me because they like me or because they want a photo op, and that’s not a good feeling. I’m always second-guessing everyone, trying to figure out, Who is this person, and what do they want from me? I wasn’t expecting that from one my closest friends. Most people don’t treat me like a human being. I’ve become an image, a persona, a robot: ‘Stand there, take a picture, and smile.’”
Dope interview. Peep the full interview here.