WOMEN IN MUSIC: ELLE MAG ANNUAL DUPLICATE COVER ISSUE

Elle's annual 'Women in Music' issue is pretty diverse this time around. This is Nicki Minaj's first Elle cover and spread along with Robyn, the electropop singer who is starting to make her way back to the forefront of everyone's iPods and Gwen, a women's magazine cover regular.



Here's a throwback vid of Robyn's first song when her hair was a little less platinum blonde and her beats a little less electro...Love the retro looks of today's pop stars when they were just getting their start in the biz.

NICKI MINAJ: SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

Nicki Minaj gets mixed reviews from writers, bloggers and commenters across the board: "She isn't a real MC, her raps are just punch lines," to speaking about her outfits and how they represent black females: "She's just a sex symbol, she not a good representation of black females," and a rebuttal of her image as a sex symbol: "With most of her costumes she is completely covered, so you can't say she's completely exposed."

But no matter what you say about her, you can't deny her strength, her "balls" and her determination to be to be one of the top female artists of this generation. In an older video from MTV's documentary of her, "My Time Now," you can truly see behind the crazy costumes and over-the-top antics, that she is a human being living her dream.