Nicki Minaj wasn't always Nicki Minaj. Before she got big, she was just Onika Maraj, a waitress at Red Lobster.

Before performing "Bed of Lies" on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," Nicki sat down with Fallon and reminisced on how she got her start. She went to school for acting and while she was waitressing, she knew she had to "get out of there before it was too late." Hence, that's where we get the Nicki that we love today, and her album, The Pinkprint, which dropped Monday, is proof of her journey to fame and everything that went along with it.

Watch the Queen Barbz recall her teen days, perform with Skylar Grey and even share a high school picture of herself: