Nicki Minaj released her highly anticipated “Pink Friday 2” album last month and she’s been on a whirlwind press tour ever since. In her most recent interview to promote her fifth studio album, she sat down with Apple Music podcast and music influencer Ebro Darden.
Unlike many other interviewers, Ebro posed a question that delved into Nicki’s personal life, pushing her to reveal the meaning of one of her most thoughtful songs on the project.
The two talked about the first song on the album, “Are You Gone Already,” a track that was recorded in honor of her father, Robert Maraj, who died in a hit-and-run collision in 2021 months after her son was born.
Ebro attempted to unpack the lyrics, erroneously stating that the platinum-selling artist started the song by talking to her son about his grandfather.
“You never got to meet Papa,” the lyric in the first verse of the song says.
However, the Young Money princess corrected him, explaining that she was actually talking to her dad and shared that her son’s nickname is “Papa Bear.”
The baby was born during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in September 2020, so the star says she didn’t want people around the child, family included, in fear of the baby getting sick. Minaj said the weekend after her father was supposed to come but he succumbed to his injuries.
“I’m rocking [the baby] and the phone rang. I look down and I see it’s my father,” she said, adding that she normally would not have picked up the call because she was with her child and trying to put him to sleep. Still, she decided to pick up and was glad that she did.
“He was very happy,” she recalled. “He was like, ‘Baby, I could come on Monday,’ because he had been waiting to be able to come to Cali to help me.”
This was Friday, Feb. 12, 2021. He had the accident the same night as his conversation with his celebrity daughter and died on Saturday, Feb. 13, never being able to see his grandson.
The 41-year-old also said that the song was otherworldly, inspired by a series of dreams she had days before her father would be killed.
Recounting the heartbreaking moment when her mother called to deliver the news of her father’s accident, Nicki shared that the recurring dreams she had eerily mirrored the phone call she eventually received in reality.
“[I]t’s the exact replica of a call I had in about four or five dreams,” she said. “[In the dream] the person was saying, ‘[Something happened to] your mom, we’re going to call you back and let you know how it went.’ But this call now is with my father,” she said. “And I’m like, ‘Wait a minute. I dreamt this.’ … I didn’t remember how it ended.”
Moreover, two nights before her father’s accident, Nicki had a vivid premonitory dream, prompting her to text people close to her about it.
“Something bad is happening, and everybody needs to pray,” the “Moment for Life” vocalist told her friends and loved ones.
She continued to describe her dream, recalling, “I saw all this blood coming out of someone’s head laying on the floor, but the person was conscious, they were scared, but it was just pouring out in the hair, and then, two nights later, [the accident] happened.”
The two also spoke about the title of the song and where she got it from. Nicki revealed that it stemmed from a prayer a pastor friend offered while comforting her after she received the devastating news. She said something in the pit of her stomach told her her dad was gone.
“Why I said, ‘Are you gone already?’ is because I knew he was gone already,” she said.
One way she knew he was gone was because their prayer changed from “help him” to “calling him back.”
Prayer could not bring him back.
The man responsible for the fatal hit-and-run was later identified, pleading guilty to felony charges in Nassau County’s Long Island state court. In August 2022, he received a one-year prison sentence. Additionally, he faced a $5,000 fine and a six-month suspension of his driver’s license.
