Nicki Minaj On Her Success: “Some People Just Harbor Hate & Envy” [VIDEO]

in Top Stories / by hiphopucit / on December 22, 2010 at 12:55 pm /

2010 has been a banner year for MTV News’ #5 Woman of the Year, Nicki Minaj. In addition to performing with Lil Wayne on “NBC’s New Year’s Eve With Carson Daly,” Minaj is celebrating the holidays by filming a video for “Moment 4 Life.” The clip features her Young Money labelmate Drake.

Between takes on Monday, the Queens native talked about those who haven’t been so giddy about her success.

“I hate to say it, but a lot of people harbor just a lot of just hate, envy,” she said. “It almost feels like, because I’m where I am, they’re where they are. I didn’t do this to you; I didn’t do this to your career. I’m responsible for Nicki; you’re responsible for you.”

While Minaj didn’t mention Lil’ Kim by name, the Queen Bee talked about her rift with Barbie on Friday when she stopped by New York’s Hot 97 radio station. Kim said she looked at Minaj’s success as “a way for me to kind of come back in” but ultimately got “played.”

Minaj said:

“When you see someone else being successful and your first instinct is to tear them apart, that’s just a sign of you feeling unhappy with your achievements. But what I try to explain to people is: Whenever you feel like that — and we all feel like that sometimes, like ‘Ah, somebody’s doing it. Somebody’s popping a lot’ — use that as fuel to go hard. That’s what I did.”

“I was like, ‘You know what? This one is doing their thing; this one is doing that; why can’t I do it?’ ” she continued. “But see, I looked at people like [Lil] Wayne. I would go to the studio, and I would observe Wayne, and I would literally pray. I would say ‘God, give me his work ethic.’ You have to ask for what you want. You have to identify what it is you need to get where you need to go and then speak that. You have to say it.”

She also hinted that changing one’s life direction is more than just words.

“If that’s what you want is a great work ethic, then you have to program that into your life,” she said. “But looking at somebody with a great work ethic and hating them is not going to help you.”