Nicki Minaj’s mother Carol Maraj has opened up about how she struggled in poverty before her daughter had a breakthrough in music and turned around their fortune.
Maraj said she gave birth to her daughter in Trinidad and Tobago at a time when she was struggling to make ends meet.
She moved to the US with Nicki Minaj when she was five and they still struggled until the rapper had her breakthrough in music.
Maraj noted that her daughter bought her a lot of expensive gifts after her success in music, stressing that her home is still the best gift she has ever gotten.
“She has bought me a Mercedes-Benz. She bought me a beautiful home, and many different cars. But I love my home. Nicki was born in Trinidad and came here at 5 years old. So to see her become this major success is amazing,” Maraj told Page Six.
Minaj, 40, previously rapped on her 2010 track “I’m the Best,” “I remember when I couldn’t buy my mother a couch/ Now I’m sittin’ at the closin’ bought my mother a house.”
The Long Island real estate purchase was featured on a MTV docuseries featuring the “Super Bass” artist back in 2010.
Maraj — the founder of the Carol Maraj Foundation — was recently honored at the non-profit Women Who Influence’s Pink Apple Brunch & Awards in Brooklyn for her work with women who have experienced domestic violence.
She founded the organization in 2013.
Maraj says of her life today, “I never expected this, raising my children here in the States, that my daughter would become this big superstar. I love that my daughter is so successful, and glad that she has a platform — but I have my own passion and drive. It’s really nice to know that I’m different.”
The mother of three said that she always wanted to instill in her now-famous daughter, “the importance of education,” she said.
“I insisted that my children go to school… and make the best of it when they came to the States,” she said. “Since I was a child, I have been determined no matter what happens in my life. I went to school for nursing. I always have hope to keep going, and that’s what I always try to tell these women. That it’s not over.”
