Nicki Minaj As the reigning queen of Lil Wayne's Young Money crew, quirky rapper Nicki Minaj has faced her share of scrutiny.

The eccentric Queens rapper, whose signature style is accented by the occasional British lilt and an extremely generous figure, recently addressed the rumors that she wears a "butt pad" to exaggerate her already impressive posterior.

"Absolutely not!" the Queens rapper told the New York Post. "People will pick anything to talk about, and that happens to be the thing at the moment." But Minaj doesn't mind the attention. "I love being a conversation piece," she continued.

Minaj has addressed her critics in the past, saying that their envy empowers her. "Everyone is not going to like Nicki Minaj," she said. "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."

Minaj's debut album will be released via Young Money/Universal Motown in the fall of 2010.

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