Minaj fever warning

In June 2012, female rap star Nicki Minaj teased her South African "Barbz" with a tweet, saying: "Ok South Africa, my goal is to come @ the end of the year. I will keep u posted my darlingz. Muah!"

It never happened. That same year she released the album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, which features the song Beautiful Sinner. She starts the song with the statement: "South Africa is where I come from. Get me my banjo, get me my drum."

She whet appetites again in March last year, simply tweeting: "South Africa!!!!!!! "

Still nothing.

But her love affair with South Africa moved to a new level yesterday, when it was announced she had signed to headline the TribeOne Dinokeng Festival, to be staged in Cullinan, near Pretoria, from September 26 to 28.

She will lead an already impressive slate of international and local performers including J Cole, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Zebra and Giraffe, Shadowclub, Taxi Violence, Fally Ipupa, Kwesta, Liquideep, Karen Zoid, Gangs of Ballet, Beatenberg, Gang of Instrumentals and Desmond and the Tutus.

The 31-year-old (real name Onika Tanya Maraj) is seen by many as the most influential female rapper since Lil'Kim.

In 2012, the New York Times said she had "crashed the hip-hop boys' club".

The festival will have three mega stages and expects to welcome more than 100 000 fans for the 72-hour, non-stop gig.

It will offer two types of tickets - a weekend pass and a day pass. The day pass has limited availability and will only be valid for September 28. The weekend pass allows access to all stages.