Rapper Nicki Minaj has made her US Vogue magazine cover debut at a time when she is promoting her album ‘Pink Friday 2’. Minaj is seen wearing a cream colour silk Valentino couture gown.

She has previously made it to the covers of the Arabian and Japanese editions of Vogue, but this is her debut for the December issue of US Vogue.

In an interview with the magazine, the Feeling Myself singer spoke about her new album, the pressures of fame, and the challenges and joys of raising her three-year-old son.

“There’s a freeness that you have around you when you’re at your best, when you’re doing your thing at your peak. There’s like this lightness in the air. You’re happy even if you’re writing a sad song,” Minaj said, “but once you start knowing that you’re being judged, there’s no longer that free spirit. People who excel at something make it look easy, but they also deal with a lot of fear of letting people down and letting themselves down. Once you make it, it’s like anything you say can be used against you.”

Minaj has not publicly revealed the name of her son. She prefers to call him ‘Papa Bear’. She and her husband Kenny Petty navigated his infancy without any help except a brief visit from a grandparent.

She admitted that motherhood has tested her patience.

“For me the idea of accepting what you can’t change—it just never clicked with me before. You want to have control over everything, but that’s the easiest way to be unhappy. So now, if I find myself trying to control it all, I try to remember what’s really important. I look in my son’s face, and my whole soul lights up. He has no clue how nerve-racking it’s been for me to be a mother and an artist.”