However, the two certainly tend towards outlandish styling. (Lester Cohen/WireImage)
Nicki Minaj has had it with people comparing her to Lady Gaga.
“It irks me, yeah,” the “Roman Reloaded” rapper said on “Nightline” last night. “First of all, I’m a rapper. I’m from Southside Jamaica, Queens. What are the similarities?”
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“Every female in this game wears wigs,” continues Minaj, explaining that her style is not at all inspired by Gaga. “Over-the-top costumes? Eh, try again. It’s getting tired now to me. In the beginning I was like, ‘Okay it’s cool, ha ha. When they get to know me, they’ll understand.’ Gaga is a fantastic artist. She’s opened her own lane, but I feel like I have my own lane. And we never cross, ever.”
Minaj also addressed making her music appropriate for younger girls who are drawn to her for her cartoonish styling and poppy hooks, and, more particularly, Sophia Grace, the 8-year-old fan who became a YouTube sensation for performing Minaj’s hit “Superbass.” Minaj said that meeting the little girl on “Ellen” last year gave her a new litmus test for writing lyrics.
“We have a running joke when I do a song, ‘Can Sophia Grace sing that?'” Minaj said. “I don’t want to offend moms or children. But I didn’t come in the game to be an artist that would appeal to kids, either. I’m a crazy lunatic.”
Minaj says that she still reserves the right to curse in her songs.
“I love the f-bomb,” she says. “It has so much power and so many meanings. You can use it as a noun, a verb, an adjective. There’s all these things you can use it for.”