Nicki Minaj Reflects on How Father’s Death Inspired ‘Pink Friday 2’

Nicki Minaj’s recent release, Pink Friday 2, quickly hit status on the Billboard 200 after its December debut. Notable for tracks such as “Everybody (feat. Lil Uzi Vert)” and “Needle (feat. Drake),” the album made its mark. Yet, it commenced with “Are You Gone Already,” a song deeply rooted in Minaj’s personal journey as she revealed in her Apple Music interview, attributing its inspiration to the sudden passing of her father in 2021.

Nicki Minaj stated: “My father had just passed. So right after I had the baby, and it was during Corona [the pandemic], and nobody knew what was going on, so, one day, I was rocking the baby and I don’t normally have the phone on me when I’m rocking him. But that day, as I’m rocking him, the phone rings, and I see it’s my father. 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.” Nicki Minaj then continues that later that night, she woke to a phone call from her mother stating that her father had been killed in a hit-and-run car accident.

Source: Billboard