(Trinidad Guardian) For just about 30 minutes yesterday, Trinidad born rapper Nicki Minaj spent time bonding with students of the St Jude’s Home for Girls in Belmont.
Minaj, seated next to Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith, spent the time discussing several topics as the students asked her numerous questions about her initial motivation to become a recording artiste to the relationship that became her eventual marriage to Kenneth Petty last year.
“I met Mr Petty when I was 17 years old, first of all,” said Minaj in a full Trini accent.
“When I met him as a teenager, I was like oh God, typical bad boy, I’m not gonna be able to lock him down, get out of here. And then he turned out to be… all of that (good)stuff. He’s just that on the outside,” she said.
She added, “And he became exactly what I needed for the balance in my life.”
Minaj also spoke on the effect of drugs, romantic relationships as a teenage and even her teenage pregnancy and subsequent abortion as she tried to use her life as a lesson for the girls at the home.
“Even in my teenage years, I didn’t know which way I was gonna turn. I had a lot of things going on, I’ve experienced being in a home with domestic violence. I’ve experienced you know, being at a very difficult crossroad in my life as a teenager and sometimes as a teenager when things happen you feel like there’s no up from there sometimes,” said Minaj.
“I don’t know what is going on in your life but it feels so difficult when you’re going through it, but you will get through it. You will get out of it. I was one of those girls who experienced being pregnant as a teenager and you know I was so ashamed to tell my mother that. Till this day I never told my mother. I felt like I let myself down, and I felt like if anyone were to find out my whole family would be ashamed of me,” she said.
She added, “I want you guys to use, if you want to use my life as a lesson in the fact that there are always better days ahead. I want you guys to be encouraged.”
“There has to be something inside of you, even right now today that decides, you’re gonna win no matter what. No matter what comes at you,” Minaj told the girls.
Minaj also hosted an impromptu talent show in which some girls sang Beyonce’s Halo as well as Minaj’s 2014 hit Pills and Potions.
She was however impressed with a spoken word piece by one of the girls and expressed some regret that she had not recorded the performance to social media.
They then convinced Minaj, with the aid of a smartphone do a verse from her hit song Megatron and a couple lines from her verse on Motorsport.
Minaj also asked the students what they felt they needed in the community, as she said she hoped to create a space for the youths in the area.
Before leaving, Minaj donated $US25,000 to home.
