An unexpected tragic loss of a loved one can truly be a life-changing moment. Multi-faceted entertainer Nicki Minaj is a testament to that fact. The rapper recently opened up about her son not meeting her father in her latest song, “Are You Gone Already“.
In a recent interview with Apple Music’s Ebro Darden, Minaj spoke about the journey of turning the pain of her loss and the tragedy of her son never getting to know his grandfather into exquisitely beautiful music.
“So right after I had the baby, and it was during corona (COVID-19), and nobody knew what was going on. 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. [But] something said, ‘Pick up the phone’.”
Minaj continued in the interview recanting the details of the day her father died in 2021 to Ebro.
“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. He is this amazing, great person, who livens up the whole house. I was like: ‘Yes, we were going to get help’.”
Yet, heartbreaking enough, the excitement that the rapper felt at her father’s impending visit to meet “Papa Bear” would be short lived. Minaj’s father would not make it to California. Shortly after he got off of the phone with his daughter, her mother called to inform her that 64-year-old Robert Maraj, had been killed as a result of a hit-and-run car accident in Mineola, New York.
“Are You Gone Already” is the first single on Minaj’s latest project, “Pink Friday 2”. The song opens with Minaj having a conversation with her father, expressing regret that her father never had the opportunity to meet Papa Bear.
This emotional tribute is unquestionably one that you will most definitely listen to more than once.
Photo: Nicki Minaj Instagram
