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“You don’t get a manual on how to be a famous rapper,” Nicki Minaj says at the start of the trailer for Nicki, which she shared on Thursday (July 28). “You just learn as it goes.” From there, the two-minute clip shows Nicki, 39, throughout her career, including some personal highs (her sharing an intimate moment with her husband and father of her child, Kenneth Petty) and lows. “I could medicate myself and tell myself it’s okay. But when the high comes down, when you are just focused on the business, you can lose yourself,” she says.
After footage of Nicki and Kenneth, 44, appear together, she breaks out a notepad to write. “I became the strongest I’ve ever been in my life. And then I just started rapping. I still can remember the great feeling, and the moment when I wanted the night to last forever. I have to make music in order to stay sane.”
“Coming out SOONER THANK YOU THINK,” Nicki wrote when sharing the trailer to Instagram. “I took some time to perfect this very intimate, delicate, electrifying, inspiring body of work. As I decide on a home for this project, I can’t help but reflect on what I’m including in this doc. Some things are so personal, it’s scary. It’s like NOTHING you’ve seen before & I need it to be handled with care. Love you so much. Thank you for the continued support.”
Initially announced in November 2020, the six-part half-hour docuseries was originally set for HBO Max (the trailer didn’t state whether or not the series would air on the streaming service.) The intimate look into Nicki’s life is directed by Michael John Warren, per Deadline, who made his directorial debut with 2004’s Jay-Z: Fade To Black. The docuseries is produced by Bron Life, the non-scripted department of Bron Studios, the Canadian company behind Joker, Queen & Slim, Bombshell, Judas, and the Black Messiah, and Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Nicki Minaj, Michael John Warren, Aaron L. Gilbert, Brenda Gilbert, Cassandra Butcher, Irving Azoff and Tommy Bruce (in association with Creative Wealth Media) are the series’ executive producers.
“I love that this series not only provides an all-access glimpse at one of the most iconic musicians of our generation; it also profiles the brave woman behind the artist, Onika,” Warren said, per Deadline. “I believe all of us can learn a great deal from her remarkable professional and personal life. It’s an honor to be entrusted with this dynamic story.”
“Nicki Minaj is one of the most important and influential recording artists of all time; never to be duplicated – and many have tried. We are proud to support this living icon, as she bravely opens her home to the world,” added Bron’s Aaron L. Gilbert and Brenda Gilbert.