By Wonderwall.com Editors
8:00am PST, Dec 9, 2023
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Celebrities often go under the knife for a little enhancement, and rappers are no exception. Some of hip-hop music's biggest stars have decided to nip and tuck a few things over the years.
We're taking a look at a few of them before and after they had work done. Let's start with birthday girl Nicki Minaj, who turns 41 on Dec. 8, 2023…
Nicki Minaj was missing one of her signature "assets" when she made her debut on the hip-hop scene in the aughts. Keep reading to see her changing looks…
Then keep reading to see more rappers and hip-hop artists before and after their plastic surgery…
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For years, there was speculation that Nicki Minaj — seen here in 2015 — got butt implants, but she refused to either confirm or deny the rumors. Then, in a 2022 interview with Joe Budden, she confessed that earlier in her career, she'd had a procedure to enhance her backside that didn't involve surgery. "It wasn't acceptable to have surgery or anything," she explained. "At that time, I had never had surgery, I had a** shots." The Queens-raised rapper has implied that she hasn't had any work done on her face. "People see my makeup and they think all types of crazy things I'm doing to my skin. Like, no, it's makeup," the "Anaconda" rapper told "Extra" in 2013. "It's the weirdest thing. Like, they'll see contour and they'll think you had surgery on your nose. No, no, no, look at 'RuPaul's Drag Race' and you'll see how you can make your nose look any shape you want. I've never had surgery on my face. God, it's makeup, people."
MORE: Celebrity plastic surgery transformations
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Cardi B's face looks a lot different than when we met her in 2015 on VH1's "Love and Hip Hop."
She fessed up to some new pearly whites in 2017 in her song "Bodak Yellow," rapping, "got a bag and fixed my teeth."
Cardi, seen here in 2021, later confirmed on Instagram that her "nose was done in 2020." (She said on Jason Lee's podcast in January 2023 that fillers she had injected into her nose made the tip longer, requiring corrective surgery.)
She's also been very candid about undergoing a mommy makeover after welcoming her daughter Kulture in 2018…
MORE: Cardi B's best style moments
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During an interview with "Entertainment Tonight" in May 2019, Cardi B revealed that she'd had another breast augmentation, this time post-baby. "I just got my boobs redone," she said. "I feel good, but then sometimes I feel like not, you know? [When] your skin is stretched out." She's seen here in July 2019 not long after going under the knife.
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In May 2019, Cardi B announced during the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis, Tennessee, that she had recently undergone liposuction.
"I have some news for y'all. I should have canceled today," Cardi — seen here at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards a few days earlier — told the audience. "I shouldn't really be performing because moving too much is gonna f*** up my lipo."
The news came months after Cardi opened up about her changing body seven weeks after she gave birth to daughter Kulture in 2018. "I still feel like I got a lot of love handles right here," she said on Instagram Live while pulling on her stomach. "It's not much but it's like — I'm used to having, like, a real tight stomach."
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In December 2022, Cardi B opened up about having biopolymer buttock injections removed from her derriere. "In August [2022] I got surgery and I removed 95% of my biopolymers… if you don't know what it is, it's a** shots. It was a really crazy process," Cardi — seen here in January 2023 about five months post-surgery — told fans in an Instagram Live video.
She also warned her followers against getting the shots in the first place. "All I'm going to say is that if you're young, if you're 19, 20, 21, and sometimes you're too skinny, and you be like, 'OMG I don't have enough fat to put in my a**" so you result to a** shots, don't!'" she said, further warning against another procedure known as the Brazilian butt lift. "When it comes to BBLs, if y'all want advice from me, before you get your BBL done you have to make sure your blood levels are alright," she cautioned. "If a doctor says your blood levels are too low or you have diabetes or whatever, don't do it."
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Kanye West has always cared about his image and in 2016, he quietly went under the knife — an experience that he later admitted led to an opioid addiction. Keep reading to see him after he had liposuction and find out what happened…
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During an interview with TMZ, Kanye West revealed that after having liposuction, he was prescribed opioids to manage his pain during recovery. "I had plastic surgery because I was trying to look good for y'all," the rapper said in May 2018. "I got liposuction because I didn't want y'all to call me fat like y'all called Rob [Kardashian] at [my] wedding and made him fly home before me and Kim [Kardashian] got married [in 2014]. I didn't want y'all to call me fat so I got liposuction." Kanye also shared that he got off the medication just before he was hospitalized amid a mental health crisis in November 2016.
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Blac Chyna began her career as an exotic dancer before transitioning into the beauty business and, in 2018, rapping. She also famously starred on the reality TV show "Rob & Chyna" with now-ex Rob Kardashian. In March 2023, she revealed that she was experiencing a metamorphosis: She had her breast and backside implants removed amid plans to reverse much of the work she'd had done on her body over the years. "I want you all to be a part of my life changing journey," she captioned a video explaining what she was doing and why she wanted a change. "I reduced my breast and Gluteus maximus," she further wrote, adding a quote signed with her real name, Angela White: "You all have the power to heal your life, and you need to know that."
Days later, she shared a video of her facial fillers being dissolved… Keep reading to learn more about her long journey with plastic surgery procedures…
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Blac Chyna, seen here with ex Tyga in late 2011, has long been known for her trademark dimples, which she "encouraged" with facial piercings, she told talk show host Wendy Williams. "When I took them out, I was like, 'Oh man, now I got dimples!'" she said in May 2019. Chyna's cheeks aren't the only thing she's modified over the years…
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Blac Chyna opened up about her numerous plastic surgeries while chatting with talk show host Wendy Williams in May 2019 (the year after this photo was taken). "I've had lipo before, I've had my breasts done four times," she said, explaining that she had breast surgeries to make her chest bigger as well as smaller. (At one point, she said, "I was like, 'This is just too much.'") Chyna also revealed that she had liposuction on her famous bottom after she gave birth to her second child, Dream Kardashian, in 2016. "I went and got something done. I got lipo because after I had Dream, it was, like, out of control. So I had some of it taken out," Chyna, seen here in 2018, explained.
In 2023, she began a major plastic surgery reversal journey…
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In March 2023, Blac Chyna began a major overhaul. She revealed on social media that she'd had her breasts reduced, telling fans, "This is actually my fifth time, hopefully my last time, getting my breasts done," adding after the surgery, "I'm very, very, very, very happy," calling it "one of the best decisions I could've done in a very long time." She also had a lengthy surgery to remove the silicone "a** shots" she had injected into her derriere when she was 19. While what she had done would normally have taken "four hours tops," she explained, her procedure "took over eight and a half hours, y'all. Whatever that silicone mass — whatever that was that was in my buttocks — it kept clogging the machine." She later told "Access Hollywood" that 1,250 CCs — roughly "a two-liter Coke bottle, all in my booty" — was removed, which made her weight drop by 10 pounds.
Days later, she revealed plans to dissolve the fillers in her face — then in March 15, 2023, she posted a video of herself having her jawline, cheek and lip fillers dissolved as seen here — and shared that she'd also decided to "retire [my] long, sharp nails," explaining on her Instagram Story, "I feel so free without the long stiletto nails. Shoutout to all the women that wear them. They no longer serve my purpose." She further told fans she wants to "pass the baton" to "other young ladies coming up," explaining that she's now "stepping into a different way."
Keep reading to see her days after she had her facial fillers dissolved…
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Blac Chyna is seen here at an event in Atlanta on March 17, 2023 — just a few days after she had her jawline, cheek and lip fillers dissolved. "I'm so happy," she wrote on Instagram after completing the filler reversal.
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Blac Chyna — who's using her real name, Angela White — showed off her natural curves in New York City on March 29, 2023, a few weeks after healing from her plastic surgery and injection reversal procedures. She told TMZ that her two children, whom she shares with music star Tyga and reality TV star Rob Kardashian, are a big reason for her decision to change and try to find more peace and that her metamorphosis began when she was baptized on her 34th birthday in May 2022. She also said she was just "sick and tired of being sick and tired."
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Iggy Azalea was always a pretty girl, but the Australian rapper felt like she could use some upgrades…
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While chatting with Vogue in March 2015, rapper Iggy Azalea (pictured a few months later) revealed that she'd had her breasts augmented. "I'd thought about it my entire life," she said. "I decided I wasn't into secret-keeping." She added to E! News: "I love them so much I had to talk about them!" But Iggy wasn't done enhancing her look…
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Iggy Azalea seemingly had surgery on her nose and chin — and admitted to a nose job in early 2015, telling Seventeen magazine of the rhinoplasty rumors, "I'm not denying it. Denying it is lame." She showed off her refined facial features at an event in Las Vegas in July 2019. The "Fancy" rapper is also rumored to have had butt implants, but in 2017, she told Australian radio show "Stav, Abby & Matt, "No, I don't have bum implants! They're not my real boobs, but it is my real butt."
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When Lil' Kim first hit the scene in the early '90s, she was a petite natural beauty. The New York rapper — seen here in 1999 — felt like she could use some upgrades, however, and visited a plastic surgeon…
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Lil' Kim had her first plastic surgery procedure — breast implants — in the late '90s. "That surgery was the most pain I've ever been in in my life," she told Newsweek in 2000. "But people made such a big deal about it. White women get them every day. It was to make me look the way I wanted to look. It's my body." She's pictured here sporting an enhanced look at the 2003 BET Awards.
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By the 2010s, Lil Kim had an entirely new face. She reportedly underwent multiple nose jobs and skin bleaching procedures and got fillers and Botox injections. Kim — seen here in 2016 — explained her changing appearance during an interview with Newsweek. "Guys always cheated on me with women who were European-looking," she told the magazine. "You know, the long-hair type. Really beautiful women that left me thinking, 'How I can I compete with that?' Being a regular Black girl wasn't good enough." Kim also told radio host Angie Martinez that she went under the knife after an abusive ex-boyfriend broke her nose.
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Today, Lil' Kim — pictured here in 2022 — is happy with her new look and doesn't care what anyone has to say about it. "It don't bother me because I'm beautiful!" she told radio host Angie Martinez. "I love myself."
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Back in 2019, rapper Latto went by Miss Mulatto. She originally hit the scene in 2016 when she won the reality show "The Rap Game." She's seen here the same year she signed with RCA Records — a few years before she really went mainstream with her single "Big Energy" and opted to go under the knife…
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Nowadays, the artist formerly known as Miss Mulatto goes by Latto and headlines music festivals. She's also made a big change in her figure — and took to Twitter when fans speculated about her plastic surgery. After being accused of being "fresh off the operating table" after a breast enhancement, the Atlanta rapper confirmed she'd had surgery but corrected the timeline. "Girl these t****** is 5 months old but go awf," Latto tweeted in August 2021, divulging that she'd gone under the knife that March.
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Nya Lee is a video vixen and rapper who fans met on VH1's "Love and Hip Hop" season 4 in 2013, the same year she's seen here. The star has been very open about her backside enhancement surgeries — even going so far as to show exactly what the procedure entailed via a video she posted on social media in 2014.
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Nya Lee has been very open about her love of plastic surgery. The star, seen here in 2021, has previously said on social media, "Get your liposuction, get your butt lift, get anything that you think on your body is, you know, not so perfect and you want to change. Change whatever little flaw you may think you have. I want you guys to see I'm totally comfortable with everyone knowing that I definitely went through plastic surgery."
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Many celebrities choose to go under the knife for bigger breasts, but not Queen Latifah. The "U.N.I.T.Y" rapper has always had a naturally large chest, which gave her crazy back pain. In 2003, Latifah decided to do something about it…
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Queen Latifah had breast reduction surgery in late 2003 after years of physical challenges. "It took me about a year and half to really do it. I didn't want to get it," she told People magazine in 2007. "But I had lost 25 pounds and my breasts didn't go anywhere! I was still carrying that load. I didn't quite want them to be this small. I was a little p***** about that." She added that before the surgery, she was, "An E or an F cup. I was pretty big. Now I'm like a DD."
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No Face rapper Ed Lover always looked fresh in the '90s. The former MTV VJ, pictured here with Larenz Tate and "Yo! MTV Raps" co-host Doctor Dré in 1994, underwent a small tweak in the 2000s….
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Ed Lover — seen here in January 2019 — got a nose job, but it wasn't because he was vain. The hip-hop icon insisted that he went under the knife to correct a deviated septum.
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Sandra "Pepa" Denton of the legendary girl group Salt-N-Pepa — seen here in 1995 — had a signature look in the '80s and '90s but decided to change things up in the 2010s…
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Pepa reportedly had a rhinoplasty around the time her VH1 reality series, "The Salt-N-Pepa Show," debuted in 2007. The legendary rapper shaved down the tip of her nose and created more of a bridge, according to reports. But that's not all Pepa had done…
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"Pepa" debuted a whole new bottom half in May 2018. The "Push It" rapper — seen here in February 2019 — is rumored to have gotten butt and hip implants, which some Internet trolls made sure to critique. Pepa's daughter, Egypt, defended her mom's new curves on Instagram, writing, "my mom loves her body so if she's happy then I'm happy."
