On the 12th of February 2021, Nicki Minaj's father Robert Maraj was struck by a hit-and-run driver while walking on a roadway in Mineola, New York. He died the next day in the hospital at the age of 64. The rapper's mother Carol Maraj has filed a $150 million lawsuit against the man charged for the accident. The Superbass singer herself hasn't given out a public statement about the tragic event.
However, Minaj has always been open about her strained relationship with her late father. Early on in her life, Minaj was already exposed to the damages domestic abuse and drug addiction could inflict on families. The Anaconda rapper even saw her father as the kind of man she would never want to be with. But what exactly was their relationship before he passed? Here's what we know.
Minaj's Father Was Abusive To Her Mother Growing Up
Nicki Minaj amassed her $85 million net worth, fueled by her drive to protect her mother. She told Rolling Stone in 2010, "When I first came to America, I would go in my room and kneel down at the foot of my bed and pray that God would make me rich so that I could take care of my mother. Because I always felt like if I took care of my mother, my mother wouldn't have to stay with my father, and he was the one, at that time, that was bringing us pain."
The Billboard chart-topper and record breaker said there were "lots of screams" and "holes punched into the walls in anger." Her father even burnt the house down one time. "I was disappointed in my father, I just wanted him to be Daddy and be the happy person that I remembered, and I was afraid, very afraid, that something would happen to my mother. I had nightmares about it," Minaj said in the same interview. She indeed lived in fear of her dad and what he might do to her mother who worked hard to give her a good life.
Her Dad Went To Rehab And Reconciled With The Family
Despite all the pains Robert Maraj has caused to the family, Minaj and her mother found a way to forgive him. After some years, Maraj went to rehab. "He went to rehab and cleaned himself up," The Chun-Li rapper told The Guardian in 2012. "Eventually [my parents] started going to church a lot, and he got saved and started changing his life. He's away from drugs now. He doesn't instill fear in people anymore."
Minaj seemed to have worked on rebuilding her relationship with her father once he's done all work. Still, she was very much traumatized by those rocky events in her teenage years that she's vowed to never be associated with the kind of man her dad was. She said, "I vowed that I'd never allow any man to control me or to be an alcoholic or anything like that around me, because I don't want my children seeing that."
The rapper's first child must have brought her father great joy. Perhaps that time when Minaj was keeping to herself after the baby was born, she used to establish stronger family ties with husband Kenneth Petty and her parents.
Nicki Minaj Was Devastated About Her Dad's Passing
Nicki Minaj still doesn't feel ready to discuss her father's passing. It's still a sensitive topic for the rapper. Around May 2021, she wrote on her website, "Tho [sic] I can't really bring myself to discuss the passing of my father as yet; I can say it has been the most devastating loss of my life. I find myself wanting to call him all the time. More so now that he's gone. Life is funny that way. May his soul rest in paradise. He was very loved & will be very missed."
The multi-award-winning rapper also gave her fans an update on what she had been up to. She said she was spending her free time recording her new album. She also announced that she was working on an upcoming documentary series for HBO Max. Nicki Minaj has recently got back to being active on Instagram, interacting with fans who are still going crazy for the rapper's rerelease of her album Beam Me Up Scotty.
Of course, the barbz are still hoping for a new album but they're still very happy that the rapper is getting back on her feet and back on her throne. It looks like we'll just have to be surprised about Nicki Minaj's next move.
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