As a little girl growing up in Southside Jamaica Queens, if anyone would've told me I'd have my own perfume one day, and be able to inspire young black girls everywhere, to go into Macy's or Nordstrom's and see their face staring back at them - I wouldn't believe them.

Female rappers get it the hardest. You have to be a girl, yet you have to be just as hard as the guys. I think some female rappers get scared out of the business before they can make it.

I've always had this female-empowerment thing in the back of my mind - because I wanted my mother to be stronger, and she couldn't be.

My rule is, whatever you were calling me four years ago is what you should be calling me now, because I don't like it when my family or close friends call me Nicki Minaj. To me I'm not Nicki Minaj when I'm with them.

A famous man once said, 'A sure formula for failure is to try and please everyone.' Some might say I built a career on doing just the opposite of pleasing everyone.

This business can be so fickle, and a lot of times, hard work isn't enough.

Employee loyalty begins with employer loyalty. Your employees should know that if they do the job they were hired to do with a reasonable amount of competence and efficiency, you will support them.

My career had fallen into an abyss because I was so complacent with things that I had already accomplished. I did not work hard in order to achieve more and to remain at the level of the player that I am and that I can be.