Nicki Minaj plays the credit card

NICKI Minaj has a message for the haters and the pretenders to her throne.

nicki minaj

NICKI Minaj has a message for the haters and the pretenders to her throne.

It's all over her latest single, Freedom - her declaration that she has busted open doors for female rappers and given a few male singers an assist up the charts, and good luck matching her success.

Minaj has never pulled any punches in her songs or in front of the cameras, so it seems strange that she gets all coy about Freedom's message.

"I'm just feeling a lot more ... centred, more of how I felt when I was coming into the game," she says. "Writing has become a diary for me and Freedom is about what I've gone through in the last three months. I don't really want to get into it."

That big hint was too much to ignore.

So, when pressed, Minaj gives out.

"I have done a lot. I hardly ever get the credit for it and it is what it is but I decided if you are not going to give me the credit, I will give myself the credit," she says.

"I have put in a lot of work. I have achieved so much and that is opening up doors for a lot of other people."

Now that she's let herself out of the obfuscation cage, let's go there about her prickly relationship with fellow American Idol judge Mariah Carey. Minaj adores our Keith Urban and remains shocked at the feud with Carey, which appears to be on a simmer now.

"To be honest, I thought we would go up there and have lots of laughs," she says.

"When I worked with her before (on the single Up Out My Face) we had such great chemistry, we were both being comedians.

"So I definitely did not see this coming. We are professionals and get the job done. Whether or not there will be any duets on Idol, I have no idea."

You have to respect the woman's work ethic. In between filming Idol she has been finishing the latest edition of the Pink Friday record, Roman Reloaded Re-Up, also known as the old album with some new songs and a DVD.

Coming from the mixtape world where there is pressure to put out something fresh regularly, Minaj says she wasn't prepared to wait until she had time to record her third album before issuing new music to her legion of Barbz, also known as fans.

"The appetite is different in that world - you have to be ready to drop something fresh as soon as you have it," she says.

Her next challenge is to match her pop contemporaries on the big stage. Australian fans got a taste of her neon and naughty themes on her theatre tour earlier this year and Minaj promises to step it up for the Pink Friday Reloaded tour, which kicks off in Adelaide next Tuesday.

Just don't mention a trapeze.

"No, I am not going to be hanging from anywhere," she says.

HEAR Roman Reloaded Re-Up out now

SEE Nicki Minaj,

SA: Adelaide Entertainment Centre - November 27 (Ticketek)

NSW: Sydney Entertainment Centre - November 30 (Ticketmaster)

QLD: Brisbane Entertainment Centre - December 3 (Ticketek)

VIC: Melbourne, Rod Laver Arena - December 5 (Ticketek)

WA: Perth Arena - December 8 (Ticketek)