Nicki Minaj Addresses Butt Pads Rumors, "People Will Pick Anything To Talk About"

Nicki Minaj has addressed speculation that she wears butt pads and said she enjoys being caught in the rumor mills.

Minaj feels that critics will use anything to try and taint her image.

Nicki Minaj doesn't have much time for her detractors, including those who recently set the Web ablaze with speculation about whether her assets had been enhanced with "butt pads." Did it bother her? "Absolutely not!" the Queens-bred rapper and Lil Wayne protégé says with a laugh. "People will pick anything to talk about, and that happens to be the thing at the moment. I love being a conversation piece."

Earlier this month, Minaj talked about why female critics target her.

"There are some that say something positive," Nicki said in an interview. "You should be happy I'm here even though I'm showing you b*tches how to do it. But umm, I get more love than hate. So you know, it's expected when people see there's one person getting shine, it makes them feel unhappy with themselves. The small minded people feel unhappy with themselves. The intelligent girls take the things that they like from me and my journey and apply it to their journey. If I had it my way, that's what they'd all do. Everyone is not going to like Nicki Minaj. Everyone's not going to like the way I look or what I do but I think if you're smart you'd take from me and figure out why everyone is talking about me. That'd be the 'smart' thing to do. I don't think they know how to express that so they express it with anger, jealousy and hatred and that consumes them and I'm still here."
The rapper also discussed her multi-layered rap image in a recent interview.

"I think very often people miss that I'm from New York, and I don't really know why that is, but I remember I said on Twitter one time, 'Shout out to Queens,' and all of the gay boys thought I was talking to them, and I realized that people haven't gotten that I'm Southside Jamaica, Queens, New York City. I feel like I say it a lot, but I guess I'm not saying it that much, or it's that I'm so diverse and I don't always rap with the New York accent--I switch it up, you know. People don't see me as just repping one city or one state. I actually really like that. That was always my goal: to be able to bridge that gap, you know, whether it's to London."

The rapper's debut album is set to drop in the fall.

"Young Money/Cash Money/Universal Motown recording artist Nicki Minaj will release her highly anticipated solo debut album in Fall 2010. 'I don't want to do anything that sounds like what any other female rapper has done,' said Nicki Minaj. 'I want to start a new lane that one day, 10 years from now, girls will say, 'I'm more of a Nicki Minaj type.'"