Nicki Minaj - Hustle & Glow

Sitting pretty on the double-platinum success of The Pinkprint, rap queen Nicki Minaj is now giving acting and executive producing a whirl. 

 

- Julianne Escobedo Shepherd

Amid youtube’s endless bounty exists a clip of a young Onika Maraj, performing a scene in an acting class.

She’s doll-faced in a red T-shirt, jeans, and braided cornrows, but the part is mature: She is to argue with another student actor over the custody of her baby. As the scene begins, something clicks and she shape-shifts into the role, so deeply embodying it that she ends up hurling a heavy corded telephone at her cohort. Off-screen we hear it clatter to the ground. With that, the scene ends and Maraj is back, looking sheepish and a little startled as she asks, “Did I hit you with the phone?” Her teacher’s initial reaction is an astonished “Hoo-hoooo!”—clearly concerned for the other student but visibly impressed by the velocity of this young thespian’s ambition.