Why is Nicki Minaj called Roman? All about singer's alter ego

Nicki Minaj has established herself as a queen of rap today. Beyond her strong, filterless, and impactful rap, another quality that draws more rap listeners to Minaj is the plethora of alter egos the rapper switches between in her songs.

One of these alter egos is Roman Zolanski, which Nicki created in 2010. The name of this alter ego was inspired by the French director, Roman Polanski. In an interview with MTV, the rapper said this alter ego was "born out of rage."

Among other alter egos of Nicki Minaj are Harajuku Barbie, Onik Tanya Mirage, Chun Li, Queen Sleeze, and Nicki Lewinsky.

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Nicki Minaj's alter ego is based on the Oscar-winning director, Roman Polanski

In a YouTube video uploaded in April 2021, Nicki Minaj explained the character of her alter ego, Roman Zolanski, introducing him as someone living inside of her, saying:

"Roman is a crazy boy who lives in me and he says the things that I don't wanna say... I think he was born out of rage. He was conceived of rage, so he bashes everyone, he threatens to beat people, and he's violent."

When the host mentioned how it must been nice to have a figure you could blame, the Side to Side rapper answered:

"He wants to be blamed. I don't want to blame him; I ask him to leave but he can't. He's here for a reason, people have brought him out. People conjured him up now he won't leave.

Many parallels have been drawn between Minaj's alter ego and the French director, Roman Polanski, whose name the character's name appears to be inspired by.

In a 2012 interview with The Guardian, when the rapper was asked if she was a fan of Polanski, she answered:

"I knew how he looked and I thought he was a weird-looking man, confused little soul. I went on Twitter and said, 'From now on my name's Roman', and my blogs went crazy. My Barbs went crazy. They cried and said, Nicki don't change your name, we don't want to call you Roman."

However, in January 2024, amidst Nicki's beef with the younger rapper, Megan Thee Stallion, her alter ego was under scrutiny.

According to Hot New Hip Hop, Polanski - the Oscar-winner director - was also infamous for pleading guilty to the crime of statutory r*pe with a 13-year-old in 1977. It was also reported that the girl had been drugged at the time.

Following the release of Thee Stallion's Hiss, fans started to observe a pattern in the Hey Mama rapper's problematic link to child s*x offenders. Hiss took aim at Minaj's husband being a registered s*x offender through the mention of Megan's Law.

While Nicki defended her husband, Petty, in an Instagram Live soon afterward, the 41-year-old has yet to make an effort to justify her alter ego's link to a child offender.

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Nicki Minaj's first collaboration with Eminem was in a Roman-featuring song

Roman's Revenge happens to be one of the earliest songs that Nicki Minaj released in the voice of her alter ego, Roman Zolanski. The track, released in October 2010, also happened to be her first collaborative work with her senior rapper, Eminem.

Alongside the Bang Bang rapper, Eminem also assumes his alter ego, Slim Shady, in the track. In a 2010 MTV interview, Nicki declared Roman's Revenge to be the "most fun track" in her sophomore album, adding:

"That song gave me life, darling."

At the time, Minaj had an ongoing beef with rapper Lil' Kim, which led to speculations about Roman's Revenge being a diss track aimed at her.

However, in an interview with DJ Khaled of the Miami Jamz, when the Starships rapper was asked about it, she responded with:

"No, I’m talking about everyone who has been in interviews talking and I think it’s good for people to hear me respond to... People have said so much about me, So I don’t ever single anyone out because no one is worth being singled out. No one is worth having their name mentioned out of my mouth and they never will get that."

Besides Roman's Revenge, another collaboration between the two rappers was dropped eight years later. Majesty, a Nicki Minaj song that features Eminem, released in August 2019, and was included in her fourth studio album - Queen.