What's Nicki Minaj's Net Worth? The Highest-Selling Female Rapper Isn't Hurting for a Payday

Becoming a top rapper in today's music industry is no easy feat—it takes raw talent, determination, persistence, and the ability to stand out (hey, marketing matters). While many musicians are self-proclaimed "top rappers of all time," most agree that when it comes to women in the genre, Nicki Minaj is at the top of the list.

Born in Trinidad and Tobago and brought to the U.S. when she was just five years old, Minaj has a true rags-to-riches story. From the streets of Queens, NY, to generating the highest-grossing tour by a female rapper in history, below we walk through Minaj's Cinderella story, her two-decade career, and the net worth that has made her the wealthiest female rapper of all time.

Nicki Minaj's Net Worth

Think Cardi B's "Bodak Yellow” multimillion-dollar payout makes her the richest female rapper to date? Think again. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Nicki Minaj's net worth sits somewhere around the $150 million mark. While that figure is unconfirmed, per the site, the rapper has made her millions from a combination of wildly popular songs and albums, enormously successful tours (including the Pink Friday Tour, which was named the highest-grossing tour by a female rapper in history), and several collaborations that have reportedly earned her more than six figures.

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Nicki Minaj's Cinderella Story

Minaj was born on December 8, 1982, in Trinidad and Tobago, with the name Onika Tanya Maraj. When she was young her friends nicknamed her Nicki and it stuck, with the last name Minaj coming years later.

When asked why she changed her last name, the "Super Bass" singer told The Guardian, "Somebody changed my name. One of the first production deals I signed, the guy wanted my name to be Minaj and I fought him tooth and nail. But he convinced me. I've always hated it."

But Minaj is just a character, she says. When she's with her friends and family, they never call her by her stage name.

“I think of her more like the Superman suit, like who you change into when you go into the telephone booth,” she told Vogue. “They’re completely different entities.”

Before moving to the U.S., Minaj and her older brother Jelani lived with her grandmother and 11 cousins in Saint James while their mother was in college. When she was five, her parents brought her and her siblings to live with them in South Jamaica, Queens, NY. While there isn't a lot of information on her childhood after moving here, we know Minaj attended LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts in Manhattan, where she majored in drama.

"It was the first time I felt like I really fit in," Minaj told Teen Vogue about attending LaGuardia. "Everyone there was creative. For once, I didn't feel like there was something weird about me."

After high school, Minaj had random jobs as she pursued her music career. From 2002 to 2004, Minaj worked with various music groups before going out on her own. Over the next few years, Minaj would work part-time as a waitress or office manager while posting all of her music to her Myspace profile.

In 2007, her music career really began when Fendi, CEO of Dirty Money Entertainment, signed her to his record label. This same year, she released her first mixtape, Playtime Is Over. While the album didn't exactly take off, her next two, Sucka Free and Beam Me Up Scotty (both released in 2008), received some significant coverage on BET and MTV.

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After a few more years of grinding, Minaj signed with Young Money, Lil Wayne's record company. Minaj credits a lot of her success to the fellow rapper's help.

"I can’t even imagine my career, um, my creative spirit without Wayne," she told Interview in 2011. "I credit him with a lot of what I do. Prior to him, no one relevant in hip-hop really gave me that support. I feel like I’m still intertwined with him creatively.

"Before I met Wayne, the person that was spearheading my career was the one person who always told me, 'Don’t be too playful, don’t be too kooky and weird… no one’s gonna feel that, nobody wants to hear that,'" she added. "So I stifled a lot of that early on, and then once that we parted ways, I was like, 'Guess what, I’m gonna just be me.'"

Her career skyrocketed with features on popular songs like Young Money's "BedRock" and Kanye West's "Monster," then with her own album Pink Friday in 2010. "Your Love," the album's lead single, peaked at No. 14 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Rap Songs chart.

For the next several years, Minaj dominated with singles like "Roman's Revenge" featuring Eminem and "Super Bass," earning top spots on several music charts.

She spent the next few years on her Pink Friday Tour and released her second and third albums. Songs like "Starships" and "Beez in the Trap" were big hitters at the time but made her question her title as "queen of rap."

In 2014, Minaj released her third studio album The Pinkprint, which she wanted to return to her hip-hop roots.

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“I was thinking If I really wanted to, I could go back in and make another pop song like that to sell but I’m choosing not to do it. I’m choosing to get back to my essence and feed the core hip-hop fan,” she told Billboard. “I feel like I need this because it’s just a more powerful platform for me… Even when I’m on stage performing my rap songs, it’s more organic.”

From 2014 to 2019, it was all about music for the "Pound the Alarm" singer. During this time, her output was huge, including her fourth studio album Queen and singles such as "Chun-Li," "Barbie Tingz," and "Megatron."

In 2019, Minaj claimed she was retiring via Twitter, but she later came back to say she would most likely never fully step away from music.

"I’ve decided to retire & have my family," she wrote in a since-deleted post. "I know you guys are happy now. To my fans, keep reppin me, do it til da death of me, (X) in the box- cuz ain’t nobody checkin me. Love you for LIFE."

In an interview with Billboard a few months later, Minaj backtracked.

"I love music and interacting with fans, so I can’t really see taking myself completely away. But I want to be open to other possibilities in my life," she said. "I do believe it is important to become a woman outside of the magnifying glass. I have to make sure that I’m well-rounded as a human being."

In 2023, Minaj dropped her fifth studio album, Pink Friday 2. Soon after, Minaj took to Instagram to give her fans a sneak peek of a rap she made titled "Big Foot." The song was released on January 28, 2024, and it broke first-day records as the biggest solo female rap debut in Apple Music history. All this to say she's still the "highest-selling female rapper for the record."

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