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Nicki Minaj (left) and Kanye West

Nicki Minaj deems Kanye West “brilliant” as she expresses gratitude towards him for endorsing her music career

While addressing students at the Oxford Guild Society yesterday, Kanye West labelled her “one of the best things” about his 2010 album, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”.

Returning the compliment, Nicki Minaj revealed that she has nothing but admiration for West and will forever be in debt to him for the opportunities he has presented her with which helped to elevate her career.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, the 32-year-old said: “I adore him. He gave me a great opportunity, there’s no way I could ever outshine him I mean he’s just brilliant.”

Continuing she added: “He (has) done something that I’ll never forget, you know, he’s given me one of the best opportunities that I’ve ever gotten in my career.”

Undoubtedly one of the most successful female artistes in the hip-hop industry, Minaj, real name Onika Tanya Maraj, also told of the pressure she puts on herself to ensure she’s always at the top of her game.

The “Only” rapper expressed: “Sometimes I think I put even more pressure than people would ever know. I have always pushed the envelope with lyrics and I always want people to say and talk about a dope Nicki line and I have always been that way.

“I think that I have inspired new female rappers to not only talk about your (genitals) but to also say witty things that dudes say and put it in our own words and just be lyrical.”

Stating what sets her aside from “one dimensional” artistes, Nicki continued: “I can be sexual, I can be lyrical and I can be emotional and you really don’t find that a lot and not just with women but with men.”

Nicki, who coined the term “pretty on fleek” thanks to a recent collaboration with Beyoncé called “Feeling Myself”, has been a driving force in changing the world’s perception of beauty and helped bring much more curvaceous women to the spotlight.

Explaining how she used “Anaconda”, which was the second release from her latest album “The Pinkprint”, as a way to encourage voluptuous females to be proud of their figures. She asserted: “When I set out to do ‘Anaconda’ I definitely wanted something that was going to give girls permission to be curvy or be thick.

“I felt like we had come to a place where we were all worshipping the skinny girls, and I think that we always need to be reminded there are lots of different kinds of girls out there and they need to feel like we represent them too.”

Admitting that she prides herself on being multi-faceted, Nicki revealed that her upcoming tour will blow her fans away as it is set to be her most “truthful and honest” show to date.

“It’s very rare that I just get to be on stage and speak from my heart to people who know me”, she said about The Pinkprint Tour, which kicks off in Stockholm on March 16 and arrives at London’s O2 Arena on March 28.

Revealing that the album, under the same name, has allowed her to really open up, Minaj described now experiencing a whole new level of freedom.

She declared: “I think this year it’s been so much more freeing and maybe because ‘The Pinkprint’ touches on a lot of things but I think just as a human being I feel free now and I’m going to continue being free and if that’s sharing more then that’s what I’ll do. I felt like I had come to a different space in my life and I realised it’s ok to be happy and not really care what people’s opinions are because they’re going to have opinions no matter what.”

Never one to give too much away, Nicki maintained: “That doesn’t mean that I’ll continue to share everything but I just feel good enough to not share. – Bangshowbizz.