Nicki Minaj is perhaps one of the most impressive success stories coming out of Young Money Records.

Growing up in Jamaica, Queens, she started out in 2004 doing background hooks for neighbourhood rappers 'til she was discovered on MySpace, and three years later she would have her first mixtape under Young Money.

The rest is a slow but considerably great rise to hip-hop fame that most female rappers can never boast of.

She appeared in the June 2008 issue of XXL magazine.

That year she also won the Underground Music Award for Female Artist of the Year.

She achieved both milestones before she even began work on her debut album, which has not been released or even named, and was slated for release in March of this year.

Surely she isn't in a hurry, though - things are playing right into her hands.

Perhaps I should be terribly honest, though - in the beginning, before I got acquainted with her songs, I was prepared to dismiss her entirely.

My bias was the product of a years-old anti-Young Money bias I had developed after a long, well-researched investigation into the lyricism of most of its big names:

- Drake, mocked by NilDoctrine's J Smooth for his blatant disrespect of the simile based on his lyrically weak habit of condensing an entire line into one word at the end.

- Lil Wayne, whose extraordinary freestyle ability is rather hit-or-miss verbally, most times being misses. No man can truly be proud of calling himself a venereal disease or a menstrual bleed, in the same spur-of-the-moment rhyme, and

- Tyga ... who is just horrible.

But in true professional fashion, I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt, firstly because she seems to be getting a huge reputation among fans, arguably growing at a faster rate than Wayne's ever did, and secondly because of her heritage.

I couldn't help but be a bit proud that she's so popular since finding out that she is of Afro and Indo-Trinidadian descent, although I would've loved it if she mentioned a little bit of that heritage.

I'm beginning to love some of the mixtape stuff she's done so far; they really show the depth and grace of her performance style, including the eccentric attitude with which she approaches both her lyrics and her stage presence.

While the cover for her second mixtape, Sucka Free, sports her re-enacting L'il Kim's classic bikini-squat pose, her other works always have her taking the part of a character, from Wonder Woman on "Beam Me Up Scotty" to her spot-on mimicry of her favorite character, Barbie, in Playtime is Over and "Barbie World."

What impresses me about this character move of hers is what it means to her - Minaj has gone on the record as saying she doesn't intend to become a sex symbol as an entertainer.

I'm sure she still acknowledges that she is, and that her album-cover personas have been partly responsible for that, but she did still accomplish her initial objective: acceptance by her audience as one of the most random, weird and over-the-top female rappers of her time, which is why her more loyal fans keep coming back for more - because no one really knows what comes next with her.

For lack of any other way of putting it, she is or at least could be to hip-hop what Lady GaGa is to pop.

Some people have concluded that Minaj has been able to garner a large female fan base, which is partly responsible for her success, but I would like to say that may just be false.

Yes, there must be hundreds, even thousands of girls who seek to emulate her, but I don't think they outnumber the male fans.

She has an amazing singing voice and she knows how to use it well, even when she's not taking the song seriously; she has this interesting and colourful way of playing around with her vocal tone that adds a level of hilarity to the song no matter the lyrical topic.

Fortunately for her, she doesn't abuse that tactic, and there are serious tracks like "I Love You" and "Girlfriend" where she refuses to goof off.

Lyrically, her verses are as spot-on as the greatest of her Young Money associates, and it's arguable that they all might even share a lyrical style.

It's my honest opinion, though, that she even bests most of them, even the proclaimed leader of the Young Money roster, Lil Wayne - at least Nicki's lines never miss, because every line she spits out is potent and entertaining, without exception.

I'd love to hear what her debut LP sounds like, but I'm hoping some mellow songs appear that allow her fans a chance to hear her vocal ability shine a bit brighter than it does now.

I'm giving that wish the benefit of the doubt, even though I highly doubt that Young Money will invest in such a move.

Either way, I'm sure it'll be a certified success, and the First Lady of Young Money Records is destined to only go higher after that.

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