Pop fans were introduced to Nicki Minaj when she appeared on the remix to Mariah Carey’s “Up Out My Face.” Nicki shares the encouraging words the pop diva told her that gave her a boost of confidence.

The head Barb relived the experience of shooting Mimi’s video with Entertainment Weekly. “I was shaking,” she recalls after meeting the Grammy-winning songbird. “After we shot the video, she gave me a little pep talk that was really sweet and sentimental. She was like, ‘You’re going to make it. You’re going to be really big!'”

Mariah was right. Since then, she’s appeared on tracks for Christina Aguilera, Usher, M.I.A., and many more. Her debut album Pink Friday drops tomorrow, but Nicki is not worried about the sales.

“It doesn’t matter if I sell 80,000 or 800,000 in the first week,” she says. “Eventually the album will be multi-platinum, because it’s a body of amazing work. I don’t have any fear about dropping the same day as Kanye. People like good music and when they hear good music, they’re going to buy it.”