NICKI MINAJ TALKS ABOUT HER COME UP! FROM WORKING AT A RED LOBSTER IN THE BRONX TO BEING ON TOP OF THE WORLD!

Some people view fantasy as an escape. Nicki Minaj sees it as the road to freedom.
"When I get up in the morning and put on a pink or a green wig, I see myself as a piece of animation," she says. "It lets me be the person I want to be, a person who's not embarrassed to have fun."

Embarrassed wouldn't be the first word you'd associate with Minaj. After all, we're talking about a woman who commonly sports expressions that range from the zombified to the psychotic, who dresses in colors more suited to a lollypop than a person, and who has a figure that looks like an R. Crumb cartoon come to life. More, the Queens-raised Minaj may start talking in a British ac¬cent at any moment. And she famously inhabits a rash of alter egos — including one named Roman, a foul-mouthed man.

Small wonder the 25-year-old has become the most talked about pop hopeful since Lady Gaga. In September, Minaj even stole some thunder from Gaga when she opened the MTV Video Music Awards with her new single with will.i.am, "Check It Out." The next month, Minaj became the first artist in history to have seven songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, either as the star or a featured guest. All this before the release of her debut CD, "Pink Friday," out Tuesday.

That Minaj is a rapper adds another point of distinction. While the '90s boasted an explosion of female MCs — from Lil' Kim to Missy Elliott — they've all since faded. Last summer, Minaj became the first woman to top Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart (with "Your Love") in eight years.

"Female rappers get it the hardest," says Minaj. "You have to be a girl, yet you have to be just as hard as the guys. I think some female rappers get scared out of the business before they can make it."

It hasn't hurt that she has a hefty ego. Asked why she thinks she has become the go-to collaborator this year (appearing with everyone from Drake to Mariah Carey), Minaj says: "These artists know that I have a very good fan base. Even if they don't like you, or your record, they'll support me."

Minaj says she long envisioned such a cushy position for herself. Born Onika Tanya Maraj in Trinidad, she moved with her parents to Queens at age 5, during a hard time for the neighborhood. "I'd walk outside and see crack vials. I would see broken glass and 40-ounce bottles."

Minaj claims her father abused drugs and alcohol and once tried to kill her mother by setting the house on fire. Fantasy became the star's way out.

"I would dream of what I wanted my life to be. My mother was making $200 a week and my father was a drug addict, but I would ask my mother, ‘Can you ask Daddy to dress up and wear a suit and can you wear a gown and we can go dancing at a ballroom?' I was acting like Cinderella."

Her self-inflation carried over into real life. Though Minaj had a job as a waitress at a Red Lobster in the Bronx, she wasn't exactly a model employee. "You can imag¬ine when you're taking orders at Red Lobster and dreaming about being famous," she says. "It's tough mentally."

It was tough physically, too, since Minaj spent every spare second creating mixtapes. After five years, some of them began to appear in XXL magazine. Her 2009 tape "Beam Me Up Scotty" earned attention from both BET and MTV, which led to her huge break, with Lil Wayne's Cash Money Records.

It's no wonder Minaj has connected right now. Her surreal style combines Missy's artiness with a sexuality the earlier rapper lacked. And her cartoonish appearance fits the Lady Gaga/Katy Perry era.

"The animated bug has bitten pop culture," Minaj says. "It makes me feel happy and free. When you don't act seriously, you can make up your own rules.