S. Samuel
Young Money's Nicki Minaj reportedly lost an opportunity to make her theatrical debut in the new Lottery Ticket movie according to the film's star and Cash Money artist Bow Wow.
According to Bow Weezy, Minaj was edged out by R&B singer Teairra Mari.
“To be honest, Nicki was close to being [the character] ‘Nikki’ in the movie. I called Nicki and said, ‘Yo, I think you should audition for this role.’ “Unfortunately, Bow’s bid to get Minaj some screen time was unsuccessful: The part eventually went to R&B vixen Teairra Mari. “I thought [Minaj] did good, but unfortunately you know how things don’t work out.” (MTV)
New York rapper-turned-actor Busta Rhymes recently said Minaj should consider hitting the big screen.
“A lot of the times we get stuck into these characters where we kind of become slaves to those characters; we sound a particular kind of a way all of the time,” he explained in an interview. “I’m never saying that it’s not a good thing. We should always trademark certain things about us so that people can identify with it off the top. But it’s always good to be able to show people how diversified you are and what you’re capable of outside your comfort zone…It feels like she ain’t got no problem displaying that…I probably think the one thing she need to do that she ain’t did yet was show up in a couple of these movies…and it’s a wrap. She get a couple of these movies and steal the scenes that she’s in the same way she do it on these records, she going to put the nail in the coffin with that.” (MTV)
FUSE TV host Toure recently talked to SOHH about Minaj’s slow growth within hip-hop.
“Nicki Minaj, I think, is still a baby artist. She still hasn’t had her first album. Has she had any videos to herself? Maybe one. She was in the video with Amber Rose but one video, a couple mixtapes but nothing huge. Drake had a couple songs blowing up on the radio. “Best I Ever Had” was one of the biggest songs last year. Nicki hasn’t had that. She’s been on other people’s songs but she’s not nearly, to me, the level of fame, and buzz and energy that Drake is at.” (SOHH Guest Star)
Last month, Young Money’s Shanell aka SNL said Minaj has steadily developed as an artist.
“Nicki’s been moving and grooving,” Shanell said in an interview. “She’s on everybody’s song. So I haven’t really seen her too much. Like when I saw her at the [BET] Awards, it was like the first time I’ve seen her in a long time. I was like, ‘Girl! Hey! Congratulations!’ When we were on tour, we kicked it on the bus, parties on the bus, in the hotel lobby but I haven’t really seen too much of her. She represents herself well and what she does well. And be it rapping and I think she even considers herself more than a rapper. So I think she’s doing an excellent job and I hope she just keeps it up.” (Rap-Up TV)
Check out some recent footage of Nicki Minaj below:
