Nicki Minaj Recalls Last Phone Call with Father Before His Death: 'Something Said, Pick Up the Phone' (Exclusive)
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The Queen of Rap opened up about the loss of her father and how it influenced 'Pink Friday 2' in an interview with Apple Music
Nicki Minaj is opening up about the final moments she shared with her late father.
On Thursday, Apple Music is set to release an interview with the Queen of Rap, 41, about her journey creating her new album Pink Friday 2 and the events in her personal life that informed it. Ahead of the episode’s premiere at 4 p.m. ET, PEOPLE is exclusively premiering a clip from the superstar’s conversation with Ebro Darden about the last time she spoke with her late father Robert Maraj, who died in a car accident at age 64 in February 2021.
The “Barbie World” rapper explained that she felt an inkling to answer a call from her father one day when she was holding her son (whom she and her husband Kenneth “Zoo” Petty welcomed in September 2020).
Courtesy of Apple Music
Nicki Minaj in an Apple Music interviewRelated: All About Nicki Minaj's Parents, Robert and Carol Maraj
“So right after I had the baby, and it was during corona, and nobody knew what was going on,” Minaj reflected. “But that day, as I'm rocking him, the phone rings, and I see it's my father. I normally would not have picked up, because I don't like to be on the phone with the baby there. I would've called him back. Something said, ‘Pick up the phone.’”
She continued, “I picked up, he was very happy, and he was like, ‘Baby, I could come on Monday?’ because he had been waiting to be able to come to Cali to help me. I kept on saying, ‘Come on out.’”
“He wasn't really happy, but I knew that, when he came [to] be with us, we were going to be happy,” the “Super Freaky Girl” rapper added. “He is this amazing, great person, who livens up the whole house. I was like, ‘Yes, we were going to get help.’”
Courtesy of Apple Music
Ebro Darden and Nicki Minaj in an Apple Music interviewRelated: Nicki Minaj Slams Her Hit 'Starships,' Says She Won't Perform It Anymore: It's a 'Stupid Song'
The Grammy-nominated artist explained that, later that night, she woke up to a call from her mother Carol Maraj who said that her father had been in a hit-and-run. She said, “It was my mother, telling me that my father was in an accident and that she didn't know what was going to happen, and she would call me back. And then, everything started spinning.”
Minaj added that she "couldn't believe" how quickly everything happened, especially because "he was the happiest that I had heard him in a long time," when they spoke just hours earlier.
Because of how painful the loss was, and since Maraj never got to meet his grandson, the hitmaker revealed that it was important to her to start Pink Friday 2 “speaking to [her] father.”
Explaining the verses on the intro track “Are You Gone Already,” she shared, “I call my son Papa Bear. So I'm telling my father, ‘You never got to meet Papa.’ And then, I begin to explain the time from my mother first calling me, telling me he was in an accident, to her calling me, telling me that he didn't make it.” (After audio of her speaking tenderly to her son and a sample of Billie Eilish’s “When the Party’s Over” plays on the track, Minaj raps, “You never got to meet Papa / He sweet proper, he keep Mama on my toes,” and details how tragedy interfered with their plans to reunite in the near future.)
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The “Super Bass” artist long had a tumultuous relationship with her father, whom she shared was abusive towards her mother and struggled with addiction in the past. However in recent years, the rap star opened up in interviews and social media about how they were working to repair their relationship.
Rodin Eckenroth/WireImage
Nicki Minaj in Los Angeles in July 2023Since his death, Minaj has also reflected upon how she now recognizes that her father was a “victim too” when it came to his addiction.
In an interview with Vogue in November 2023, she said, “I think about watching my father go back and forth [with addiction], and I just wish that at the time I understood that he wasn’t doing it because he wanted to.”
The hip-hop superstar dropped her long-awaited fifth studio album, which featured both pop-rap bangers and more introspective songs about loss like “Last Time I Saw You,” in December. Next year, she’ll take the project out on the road with a massive North American arena tour.
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