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Nicki Minaj decided to pursue her music career to avoid poverty, she has revealed.
The 26-year-old singer, who had an impoverished childhood in Trinidad, revealed in a E! Entertainment documentary that she felt compelled to throw everything behind her passion - just so she doesn't need to work.
"I just had to give this [rap] one try because I had never given anything my all. I was like, 'You know what, I don't care if I end up in a shelter. I am not going back to work'," she said.
She added: "Growing up in Trinidad, I didn't know that we were poor, ten people living in a three-bedroom home and all the dogs and cats my grandmother had, none of the seemed really abnormal."
Her dedication soon paid off when Nicki, whose real name is Onika Tanya Minaj, finally got a record deal with Lil Wayne's label Young Money Entertainment.
The E! Entertainment Special: Nicki Minaj will air on US screens on July 13.
