Nicki Minaj coaxes rare smile from Anna Wintour at Vogue's Forces of Fashion in NYC

Nicki Minaj coaxed Vogue global editorial director Anna Wintour to crack a rare smile while attending the eighth annual Forces of Fashion event, which was held at her office inside One World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday.

During her 73 Questions with Vogue last November, the 41-year-old hip-hop star famously freestyled: 'I heard 'em who they sent for / said you a 10, you must have meant four / how to summon the Wintour / Hello, Anna Wintour!'

Nicki (born Onika Maraj) showed a little leg in a navy-blue turtleneck dress with a high hemline, black stilettos, and chrome spherical bangles.

Minaj was wearing a side-parted, rear-length black wig as well as a bold red lip for the day-long industry event where tickets cost between $2K and $5K.

Outside the venue, the 12-time Grammy nominee showcased her star power with the sheer number of devoted Barbz fans, who swarmed her at the entrance.

Nicki was at Forces of Fashion to take part in a livestreamed conversation called 'Nicki Reloaded' moderated by Meta VP of fashion, Eva Chen.

'A few different women in my life, at different times in my life, told me: "When you get to a certain age, you're going to be so happy. The things you used to worry about, think about, care about - you won't anymore. You'll have this confidence,"' Minaj recalled onstage.

'And I said, no. I was sweating the small stuff so to speak. And of course, they were all right. They were all right. What happens is you realize who cares! Who cares about most of the things that we spend time worrying about or thinking about if someone said something about us or what comment someone left on the Internet about us.

'You realize I have all these blessings in my life and I'm choosing to focus on the people who don't like me? I feel like when you turn 30, 40, 50 - like milestone ages, especially for women, your confidence grows and grows and grows.'

The Trinidad-born, New York-raised star explained how over the decades she began to realize what clothing worked best for her body and what hair worked best for her face.

'You start understanding yourself better. When you understand yourself better, you forgive yourself. You're able to love yourself and you're able to love the imperfections that you never loved before,' Nicki noted.

'I couldn't look at old photos of myself before. And when I look at them now, I love them. I don't know what was going on in my brain at that time to make me feel that way, but thank goodness it left.

'And I hope all girls or boys everywhere I hope that you know that one day you're going to look back at those pictures you hate, and you're going to realize: 'Oh my god, look how beautiful, look how pretty, look how cute I was!" So do it now. Love yourself now because that's how I really feel right now.'

Meanwhile, Anna - turning 75 in three weeks - moderated a panel called 'Victoria's Reign' with Victoria Beckham creative director, Victoria Beckham.

The 50-year-old fashion mogul formerly known as 'Posh Spice' opted for a plunging olive-green midi-dress, featuring ruched short sleeves, and orange ankle-strap heels.

Minaj - who chatted with both British ladies beside a coffee maker - is enjoying much-deserved time off after concluding her $108.8M-grossing, 79-date Pink Friday 2 World Tour last Friday.

The Big Difference rapper will celebrate her fifth wedding anniversary with Kenneth Petty next Monday, and they're parents of a four-year-old son publicly known as 'Papa Bear.'

The 46-year-old 'music industry professional' is serving three years probation for failing to register as a sex offender in California.

Nicki was only 16 when she first met Kenneth, who served a combined 11 years in prison for raping a 16-year-old girl in 1995 and shooting a man to death in 2002.