[ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. tonight on "nightline," a dangerous game. schools to backyards, thousands are doing it. the alarming trend spreading on youtube, teens choking themselves to get high. tonight "nightline" investigates what every parent should know. and hurricane nicki. she's the world-famous rapper with wild lir skpix wilder outfits. and with hits like "super base," and turn me on, there's no stopping nicki minaj. she tells us what it's like to stay hard core while her youngest fans are watching. plus, dance it off, the hot work-out made famous in

bollywood. you heard it in jay-z's song and now it's everywhere. we try out the latest craze in sweating off the pounds. good evening i'm cynthia mcfadden. tonight you can find thousands of videos documenting this online and a new study found that one in seven college students have admitted to trying it as early as age 14. it's called the choking game. and kids are doing it to chase a drug-free high. many who try it think it's not as dangerous as drugs or alcohol, but abc's david wright discovered this can be a deadly game. >> i'm going to choke him out. >> reporter: some call it the choking game. or the pass-out game. or even california knock-out.

auto asphyxiation just for the rush of it. >> holy [ bleep ]. >> reporter: the videos are all over youtube. >> a lot of people are doing it and they don't know the consequences. >> kids are doing it and think it's a game. >> they think nothing's going to happen. >> judy has made it her life's mission to put an end to the choking game, spreading awareness of its dangers. >> a lot of kids say, at least we're not doing drugs. they think it's an alternative, and they don't understand that they're killing brain cells. >> reporter: has the internet, has youtube made it worse? >> absolutely. they're filming other kids doing it. they're filming it in groups, and they're posting it. >> reporter: it's been around for as long as kids have done dumb things. >> oh, my god! >> reporter: youtube has breathed new life into this dangerous game.

>> he's out! >> oh! >> reporter: now peer pressure can come from a total stranger. curious kids can find a variety of ways to con strict oxygen to the brain, get a quick buzz, and prove to their buddies just how cool they are. >> yes, i swear to god! >> a lot of kids make it look fun. they don't realize the kid is on the floor twitching because he's having a seizure. >> the brain gets short circuited. this needs to be put on the radar screen of every mentor, scout leader, church youth group supervisor, teacher, counselor and parent. >> reporter: between 7 and 15% of all kids have tried it. far from being harmless fun, it can have devastating consequences. >> you can trigger seizure activity that may or may not end in permanent damage to the brain or even death.

>> reporter: nebraska high school sophomore got curious. the video that inspired him is still on his ipod. >> what i'm going to show you now is completely safe. don't listen to other people. >> reporter: that's exactly what happened to derick. where did you bang your head? >> on the right side and a fractured it. >> had the fracture been any deeper, he would paralyzed his facial nerve. >> reporter: he had to airlifted to a trauma center, only later his parents learned from the hospital that a con ketion was likely the result of a choking game. they're not the only family with a terrifying story. >> derrick was an awesome kid. >> reporter: her son tried the game two years ago. >> it's every mother's nightmare. went off to school, happy as a lark. >> reporter: 12 years old,

earned his marksman badge. >> not a kid at trouble, or at risk. >> reporter: the next day he learned about the choking game from a friend at school. >> he took his boy scout rope. >>r. >> reporter: so he hanged himself? >> that's what the police said, it wasn't a suicide. it was the choking game. >> reporter: had you heard of it before? >> never. >> reporter: she's developed a curriculum on the choking game. he helps school desrikts across the country will strart addressing the choking game openly? >> what would you do to say no? >> i think i would say no and explain why they shouldn't do it. >> reporter: anecdotally there isn't a school district in the country that hasn't encountered some version of the choking game. >> they're often misclassified as suicides. >> reporter: judy says adults are fooling themselves if they think kids don't know because of

their peers and because of youtube. >> they're making access to an incredibly dangerous practice. >> reporter: youtube told abc news, our community guidelines prohibit videos intended to encourage dangerous activities. we routinely remove material and we encourage users to flag video for our attention. derick knows he's lucky his injuries will cost him a football season. >> even if you're curious to do it, don't do it. >> eric's family lost infinitely more. >> part of me wants to say, how could you be such an idio? how could you be so stupid? >> reporter: and a part of you wants to hug him? >> oh, god, absolutely. >> reporter: she can't get her son back. all she can do is try to make sure this deadly game won't kill someone else. i'm david wright for "nightline" in santa monica, california. >> an alarming and important story. our thanks to david wright.

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"nightline" continues from new york city with cynthia mcfadden. she's rapped alongside ka e kanye, william and madonna, these days it seems like everyone wants a piece of nicki minaj. her latest album debuted number one on itunes and with nearly 11 million followers he's edged out

eminem as the hottest rapper in the twitter sphere. juju chang experiences the minaj effect. ♪ >> reporter: with her cotton candy hair and tech ni color costumes, she looks like a cartoon character come to life in her video super base. ♪ don't mistake her for a bubbly popstar. she sees herself as a rapper, hard core. >> i love the f-bomb. >> reporter: why? >> it has so much power and so many meanings. it can be a noun, a verb, an adjective. >> reporter: cursing aside, she set a record for having seven hits on the chart at one time. ♪ >> reporter: and with her blockbuster performance on american idol, she's gone mainstream and now has legions of very young fans. >> give me a high-five right now. >> reporter: how'd she do it?

taking the edgy adult raps, like in turn me on, and merging them with irresistible hooks. should parents be worried about their kids watching nicki minaj? >> no, i don't want to offend moms or children when they come and pay their money to see a show. but i didn't come in the game to be an artist that appealed to kids either. >> reporter: you're a grown-up. >> right. and i'm a crazy lunatic. >> reporter: one of those taye-year-old fans even recorded her own version of super base. singing some of those very adult lyrics, getting more than a million hits on youtube. >> you said you love nicki minaj, right? >> yeah. >> do you want to meet her? >> come on out nicke.

>>r. >> reporter: it gave her a whole new perspective and litmus test for what's acceptable. >> like in my crew when i do a song and say, can sophia sing that one? >> reporter: but it's not just the lyrics, the outfits she bounces around in, certainly aren't for kids either, especially when she accidentally exposed her breast during this live performance on "good morning america" last summer. >> i'm so sorry about that. >> reporter: but there are people out there, i remember the first time, people were like, it's a stunt. >> i would never, ever, i swear to god, do something like that on purpose. i would never do that. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: she writes her own lyrics, feminine and fierce in a male dominated industry that's often criticized for being degrading to women.

songs like moment for life can be an anthem for feminism. >> reporter: but there's a girl-powder flavor to it? >> yeah, it makes girls feel like they can do anything. i'm always saying, i'm like always be successful outside of a man. >> reporter: perhaps minaj herself tries not to rely on a man after watching her own mother suffer for years in an abusive marriage. nicki born in trinidad, moved to a rough neighborhood in queens, new york, at the age of five. the whole family struggled with her dad's crack addiction. >> it was so devastating. it's like someone dying. >> reporter: how much violence did you witness as a child? >> a lot. my father was abusive. it was be a real bad outburst and we were afraid for her life. he would threaten to kill her. >> reporter: how did that make you feel? >> angry. i wanted to kill him. i wished he was dead.

>> reporter: while her father told "nightline" he's been clean and sober for years and minaj has forgiven him, she still taps into that rage for which as a child, she created split personalities in order to cope. ♪ >> reporter: she put two on display in monster. did you create the alter egos to escape? >> probably sub consciously but not knowingly. >> her refuge was acting which she began exploring as a fifth grader. she was discovered thanks to her free-styling hip hop. on a dvd called the come-up. in less than five years, she's transformed into a fashion heavyweight, thanks to her outlandish outfits. but do not compare her to lady gaga if you know what's going for you. does that comparison offend you? >> offend me, no.

irks me, yeah. first of all, i'm a rapper. what are the similarities? why don't i ask you? >> reporter: just the wigs and -- the. >> every female in this game wears wigs. >> reporter: the over-the-top costuming. >> over the top costumes, try again. >> reporter: so it does make you mad. >> it's getting tired to me. in the beginning i was like it's cool, but when they get to know me, they'll understand me. gaga is a fantastic artist, paving her own lane, but i feel like i have my own lane, and we never cross, ever! >> reporter: she has crossed paths with the queen of pop, madonna. with whom she performed at the super bowl. minaj says they both have huts pa, or as they say in hip hop, she's bossed up.

>> when a man is bossed up, he's taking control, he's getting money, he's in control of his settings every time. and there's no, i guess the name for it in the female world, bitch. oh, she's being a bitch! what does that mean? >> reporter: she also learned about being a working mom from mod ana. >> when i saw her, i saw it could be done. her children came to the rehearsals. that moved me, but no children anytime soon. no, no, no, no, no. >> reporter: for the young mogul in the making, there's plenty of time for that. >> our thanks to juju for that. up next, the hottest way to shimmy yourself thin. ♪

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it's the free-wheeling folk dance that's now an upand coming work-out trend as devotees shake and shimmy themselves thin. john berman gave it a whirl for tonight's sign of the times. >> reporter: it looks like a bollywood musical. it feels like a jane fonda work-out. and after a long night, it might smell like a men's locker room. but this sweaty, swaying dance party is way cooler than that. this is bhangra. >> i'm addicted. >> together. >> reporter: bhangra music born in the region along the india-pakistan border, brought to the united states via england, has the booming baseline, pounding drums, and rhythmic vocals that make for a

hypnotic dance carnival. ♪ >> reporter: what do you love about it? >> it just moves my soul. makes you want to dance. >> reporter: it's infiltrated american hip-hop. missy elliott sampled bhangra beats in her song and also jay-z in beware of the boys. and movies like "slumdog millionaire" that warmed the hearts and heels of american movie-goers. what's the future of bhangra? >> world domination. d.j. rakea, as she's called, dominates the dance halls, but bhangra has already gone bigger. yes, where there's a craze, there's almost certain to be a work-out. >> america is very big on health and fitness. so i thought, let me bring my dance into the fitness industry. ♪ >> reporter: serena jane is the

founder of la sallea bhangra and has helped the spicy indian music on from the dance floor to the work-out world. thousands are doing it, wherever they can. even central park. >> it gets into your body and all you want to do is move, your shoulders up and down, arms up in the air. >> reporter: classes nearly every day of the week. >> it's a lot more fun than running on a treadmill. >> reporter: so what does d.j. rakea think of her bhangra in the gym? >> bhangra is one other way to move your body. >> reporter: but this is clearly where she prefers to see it, the dark, pounding dance floor. it certainly is fun. it's certainly not easy. at least not for everyone. a trip to the gym never sounded so good, and a nice on the dance floor, never burned so much. i'm john berman for