Amid America’s unremitting opioid epidemic, rap empress Nicki Minaj admits that she got swept up in the maelstrom of powerful prescription medication addiction.
The Pink Friday architect made the stunning admission during her cover story interview for Vogue’s December edition as she prepares for the release of its sequel, Pink Friday 2, on Dec. 8.
When Minaj began taking the potent drug for her painful menstrual cramps, she could not have anticipated the physiological dependence that would ensue.
“No one told me that this was a narcotic and this was addictive. Luckily, I was able to ground myself. But — once an addict, always an addict,” Nicki said. “I feel like if you’ve ever experienced addiction to anything, which I have, you always have to think twice and three times about the choices that you make.”
Minaj reflected on what powerful painkillers did to our most beloved musical legends.
“Look at some of our biggest celebrities. They eventually either get laughed out of wanting to go outside anymore, like Michael Jackson, or criticized, like Whitney Houston, or they fight silent battles, like Prince,” Nicki explained. “These are some of the greatest of all time. And one day, they decided, ‘You know what? I’d rather self-medicate and be in my own world.'”
In the Vogue interview, Minaj also talked about what addiction did to her late father, Robert Maraj, and how it impacted her childhood.
“I feel like I will always consider myself to be just like my father,” said Minaj, whose birth name is Onika Tanya Maraj. “I think about watching my father go back and forth, and I just wish that at the time, I understood that he wasn’t doing it because he wanted to,” Minaj added. “Now I realize those people weren’t making those choices because they wanted to hurt their family. Addiction took over their bodies and their lives. They were victims, too.”
Minaj’s father was killed in a hit-and-run accident in suburban New York at age 64 in February 2021.
