Nicki Minaj recalls heartbreaking final talk with dad hours before his death

Nicki Minaj has shared details of her heartbreaking final conversation with her late father just hours before he was killed in a hit-and-run crash

Nicki Minaj

Nicki Minaj arranged for her dad to come visit her in a final telephone call just hours before he was killed in a hit-and-run crash.

The musician's father Robert Maraj, 64, died in February 2021 after being struck by a car in Mineola, New York and Nicki has now revealed they spoke shortly before the tragedy to organise a trip for him to California to meet her baby son for the first time.

In a conversation with Apple Music's Ebro Darden, Nicki explained: "So right after I had the baby, and it was during corona, 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. Something said: 'Pick up the phone'.

"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'."

However, the trip never happened because just hours later Nicki got a call from her mum Carol who broke the terrible news that Robert had been involved in an accident.

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Nicki added: "[The phone rang again]. 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 ... [I] couldn't believe [how quickly everything happened] ... he was the happiest that I had heard him in a long time."

Nicki went on to explain she included a tribute to her dad on her new album 'Pink Friday 2' as the first song on the record 'Are You Gone Already' features her talking to him and telling him he never got a chance to meet her son, who she has nicknamed Papa Bear.

She said of the song: "So I'm telling my father, 'You never got to meet Papa."