Nicki Minaj’s road to global superstardom was not an easy one.
On the rapper’s latest effort, Pink Friday 2, Minaj gets vulnerable as she details some of the more tumultuous moments of her career on the LP’s closing track “Just The Memories,” including being turned away from record labels, run-ins with the law, to almost losing her life before her star could rise.
“I ‘member when I was the girl that everybody doubted / When every label turned me down, and they laughed about it,” raps Minaj on the second verse. “I ‘member goin’ home and writin’ fifty more raps / Just ‘cause I knew you really wanted me to fall back.”
Further into the track, she references an arrest, saying, “I ‘member when this girl in the hood thought she caught me slippin’ / I got arrested, I assaulted with a deadly weapon.”
The most haunting revelation comes in the third verse, as she raps, "Greatest female rapper to ever live, and that's on my kid / I could've overdosed, could've been comatosed."
Fortunately for Minaj, and the music world at large, she would be discovered by Lil Wayne through a street DVD, before signing her in 2009. Just months later, her mixtape Beam Me Up Scotty was released, followed by her blockbuster debut album Pink Friday in 2010, and the rest was history.
Pink Friday 2 was released last Friday and features guest appearances from Drake, Lil Wayne, J. Cole, Lil Uzi Vert, and more. The album will continue to be expanded even further into the “Gag City” universe with four additional songs dropping on a fixed schedule, according to Minaj. The first drop being a 50 Cent-assisted remix of “Beep Beep" and the second being "Love Me Enough" featuring Monica and Keyshia Cole.
Listen to "Just the Memories" below.
