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Nicki Minaj may be the reigning queen of hip-hop, but it hasn't been an easy journey for the fashion-forward MC. In a recent interview with U.K. newspaper The Sun, 26-year-old Minaj opened up about her troubled upbringing.
"All of my young and teenage early years we lived in fear that my mother would be killed by my father," she said. "It was ridiculous. It made me act out to guys and be evil to them when I was growing up."
The Trinidad and Tobago-born singer moved to New York when she was 5 and credits growing up in the city and living in fear of her father for making her so independent. "It made me tough," she admitted. "Of course it did. I am an emotional person, but I am a tough person. It was very tough emotionally for me to have a parent who was an alcoholic and a drug addict. I had a mum with no money."
Minaj said her family "didn't really have many options" and felt "helpless," something she described as "the worst feeling." The wig-wearing, flamboyantly dressed star summed up her father as being "violent -- physically and verbally" and credits her older brother for "(becoming) the man of the house and (standing) up to my father."
"(My mother) didn't cut ties when I felt like she should have done," the perfectly poised rapper said. "That's been my whole thing. I've been able to say, 'This isn't working any more. You need to get out of my life.' I keep it moving and it has worked.'"
Despite her tough childhood, Minaj doesn't take things too seriously. The young MC recently laughed it off when Regis Philbin took his admiration for the rapper's assets a little too far, tapping her on the butt during a live interview. Oh, Reege!
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