Besides rapping, another wonder of rap superstar Nicki Minaj’s versatility is her ability to blend into different accents.
In a 73 Questions With Vogue feature published Thursday Nov 9, the Barbie Dreams hitmaker was asked to share the first accent she successfully mimicked.
“Well, I thought I nailed it, but I’m learning I did not: the Jamaican accent,” Minaj revealed.
Hailing from the Caribbean Islands of Trinidad and Tobago, Nicki Minaj has had close proximity to Jamaicans her whole life.
She moved to the United States when she was five, and was raised in South Jamaica, Queens, which boasts a mixture of immigrants, including Jamaicans.
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Mainstream audiences were introduced to a patois-speaking Nicki Minaj in 2010, when she hopped onto Gytian’s Hold Yuh Remix where she raps in part:
Ayo, Gyptian, tell dem fi gwaan, eviction
Dis one yah, it a di bad gal edition
See dem gal deh, contradiction
Dem seh dem sintin’ tight, a bare fiction
As if not afraid of flaunting her ‘perfect’ Jamaican accent, later that year, she dropped Wave Ya Hand, which appeared on her debut album Pink Friday. Minaj went on to flaunt her Jamaican accent in collaborations with Beenie Man on Gun Shot (2012) and Mavado on Give It All To Me (2013).
Beyond more online videos of her speaking patois, Minaj has continued to insert Jamaican influence in her music, from her sampling of Danny Browne’s Filthy riddim on Megatron, to her Likkle Miss remixes with Skeng and dancehall acts like Spice, Pamputtae and Dovey Magnum.
