The Man Who Inspired Nicki Minaj to Get Plastic Surgery — Her before Surgery and after Pictures

Nicki Minaj is one of the biggest names in the hip-hop scene. She has been at it for the better part of a decade now, pumping out hit after hit.

Her tunes and the content that comes with them are usually adult. Her way of presenting herself in her art is usually not safe for work.

That type of image brings with it big baggage, usually about body image and plastic surgery. Minaj is no exception as there have been many questions about whether she has undergone plastic surgeries and how she looked before surgery.

Nicki Minaj’s Plastic Surgery Speculations and the Truth

The topic of Minaj's (whose real name is Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty) plastic surgery became a big thing again in May 2022 after she broached the topic herself during a podcast with Joe Budden. In a conversation that touched upon a lot of subjects about her, she discussed her beginnings with cosmetic alterations.

"I wish I would have appreciated myself more, my look more," she said before going into how she became one of the first people on social media to be ridiculed for her looks.

Nicki Minaj when she was 17 (on the left) and in 2014. (Photo: Instagram)

"It wasn't acceptable to have surgery at all," Minaj remembered. Then she talked about getting injections on her rear, or as she put it, "a** shots."

She did not consult anyone when she did that procedure and called it an "insane" thing. Further, she did not even go to a doctor or a professional medical practitioner to get those injections when she got them in Atlanta.

Then, Minaj detailed how she got the inclination to get the injections done, which were illegal. According to her, it was Lil Wayne's influence.

She was around Wayne a lot, and the legendary rapper was always talking about big derrieres. He would have a new woman with him every day and Minaj noticed their bodies and felt like hers was not upto the mark for the industry.

"I didn't feel complete, or good enough," Minaj confessed. Wayne and other people would jokingly tell her those things, too, but to a young Minaj, they stuck with her because those comments came from people bigger and more successful than her.

She had insecurities, and those jokes only fueled them. She did not take them as jokes even when Wayne and company could have thought of her as "confident" and "good in her own skin."

During the conversation, she also confessed to never having had surgeries before that. Now, however, many people speculate she has had surgeries.

Besides her backside, people speculate she has had surgeries on her chest and nose. These speculations start when people compare her so-called before surgery and after surgery pictures.

Minaj's rumors about having buttock implants were fueled after her spat with another female rapper, Remy Ma. In their back and forth, they accused each other of having gotten plastic surgeries — Ma specifically accused Minaj of getting implants on her rear side.

A faction on the internet also believes she has had nose surgery. They appear to come to this conclusion after seeing how different her nose looked in her 2007 'Dirty Money' rap video, along with a few other older pictures of the rapper.

Minaj, however, disagrees with those speculations. In a 2013 interview with Extra, she denied getting surgeries and credited her changed looks to her makeup.

She said it was the contouring that made her nose and her skin look different, not cosmetic procedures, and even urged people to watch RuPaul's Drag Race to see the magic of makeup. "I've never had surgery on my face," she asserted.

Nicki Minaj Acknowledges Her Influence in the Plastic Surgery Scene

Minaj is incredibly self-aware of how her stature affects the culture, whether that be music, fashion, or something else entirely. She showed this awareness while discussing the influence she might have on the younger generation regarding plastic surgery.

The rapper admitted she was one of those who dismissed her influence on people and their children, but now she understood it.

"Superstars inadvertently become role models no matter what," she said, admitting she might have a huge part in influencing people to go down the cosmetic surgery route to change their bodies.

She is not ashamed of her choices, though. Instead, she openly, and frequently, posts collages her fans make of her "then/now" pictures.