Nicki Minaj has an estimated net worth of $150 million. She is a Trinidadian-born rapper, songwriter, singer, and actress.
While talent is a prerequisite to making it big as a rapper in the entertainment industry, opportunities and the right connections are also as important. As talented as Nicki Minaj is, she didn’t gain worldwide recognition and a mouthwatering net worth until she met Lil Wayne and signed with Young Money Entertainment in 2009. Her career skyrocketed from there and there has been no looking back for the queen.
Nicki has been described as one of the most influential rap artists of all time, considering all the records she has broken and set, especially for a female rapper. Some of her numerous achievements include eleven BET Awards, six American Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, one Billboard Women in Music Rising Star Award and ten Grammy Award nominations.
How Nicki Minaj Achieved a Net Worth of $150 Million
For someone that started her career as an underdog from the underground, Nicki Minaj has indeed come a long way. After releasing 3 mixtapes in 2007, 2008 and 2009, she began to gain significant airplay, especially on MTV and BET. The rapper then signed to Young Money Entertainment in 2009 after rapper Lil Wayne discovered her.
That career move helped her get her feet in the door. Her first album with her new record label Pink Friday debuted on number 2 on the Billboard 200 after it was released on the 19th of November 2010. It sold 375,000 copies in the first week of sales. The album further reached #1 in the US in February 2011 and was certified platinum.
Nicki Minaj has since gone on to release 4 studio albums to date and has sold thirty million singles as a lead artist and sixty million singles as a featured artist. She has also sold more than five million albums worldwide. This has made a huge impact on her net worth.
Asides from the money she has made from song sales as one of the world’s best-selling music artists to date, Nicki has also embarked on several financially successful tours and taken up gigs that paid handsomely. In 2012, she was a judge for the 12th season of American Idol. She reportedly earned $12 million for her appearance. She was also reportedly paid $50,000 to show up at Floyd Mayweather’s daughter’s 14th birthday and between $300,000 to $500,000 to perform at a Bar Mitzah in 2015. In what has been described as one of her best verses on Kanye West’s song ‘Monster’ Nicki alluded that she gets $50,000 for a verse on a song.
The New York native also holds the record as the first female artist to be on the Forbes Hip-Hop Cash King List. With her $29 million earnings of 2013, she took the number 4 spot.
Like most successful musicians who have a flair for acting, Nicki has ventured into acting and featured in a number of successful movies. She featured in Barbershop: The Next Cut (2016), The Other Woman (2014), Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) and The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019).
Another avenue through which Nicki has made money is through endorsements. She has been linked with products like MAC Cosmetics, Computers, OPI Products, Mattel, Nokia, Pepsi, Adidas, Kmart, Beats Electronics and several others. She further owns a fragrance line “Pink Friday” which was launched in 2012.
Alongside Jay Z and sixteen others, Nicki is a co-owner of the music streaming service Tidal.
| Nicki Minaj’s Career Earnings By Year: (2010 – 2020) | |||
| 2010 | $4 million | ||
| 2011 | $6.5 million | ||
| 2012 | $15.5 million | ||
| 2013 | $29 million | ||
| 2014 | $14 million | ||
| 2015 | $21 million | ||
| 2016 | $20 million | ||
| 2017 | $16 million | ||
| 2018 | $10 million | ||
| 2019 | $20 million | ||
| 2020 | $10 million | ||
| Total = $166 million (before taxes) | |||
How Does Nicki Minaj Spend Her Money?
With her colorful and flamboyant appearance, Nicki Minaj might appear fickle but she has shown over time that she is well grounded and knows what is important as someone who grew up without much. She performed alongside Katy Perry for service members at the VH1 Divas Salute Troops concert in 2010.
In 2012, she contributed massively in the raising of $250 million for an AIDS campaign. She also donated $15,000 to Food Bank For New York City after Hurricane Sandy and held a turkey drive at her former school.
Nicki has helped many students with tuition and supply funds via her Twitter handle. She granted requests of thirty students ranging from $500 to $6,000 in 2017 and also promised to launch an official charity for student loans and tuition payments. She also shared on Instagram that she will be donating money to a village in India through her pastor – Lydia Sloley. Her donations helped the village get a tailoring institute, two water wells, a reading program, and a computer center. She also donated $25,000 to Red Cross after Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, Texas.
Alongside her philanthropic endeavors, Nicki Minaj’s net worth has also gone into real estate. She reportedly owns several properties all around the United States, including an $11.8 million mansion in Malibu. She also owns a pink-colored Bentley Continental GT and 2 Lamborghinis.
She has also admitted that she spends a lot of money on her accessories. In 2012, she revealed that she spends as much as $50,000 monthly on various designer shoes and bags.