Rapper Nicki Minaj’s father, Robert Maraj killed in a hit and run, confirms source

The 64-year old father of popular rapper Nicki Minaj has reportedly died after he was being struck by a hit and run driver in New York, the police confirmed. Robert Maraj was walking along a road in Mineola on Long Island on Friday at 6.15 pm when he was hit by a car that kept moving, said the Nassau County police.

In a statement, the Nassau County Police Department said that Mr. Maraj was walking in the roadway near the intersection of Roslyn Road and Raff Avenue in Mineola, N.Y. when he was hit by a northbound vehicle that hurriedly left the scene.

As the incident occurred, Maraj was rushed to a hospital in a critical condition, where he was then pronounced dead on Saturday. Since then the police have been asking any witnesses to the fatal crash that came forward.

Minaj, 38 who was born as Onika Tanya Maraj in Trinidad and was thereafter raised in the New York City borough of Queens, has not yet made any public statement about her father’s death.

The disheartening news was confirmed by a representative of Ms. Minaj but did not provide any further details.

Previously Ms. Minaj whose parents moved to the United States from Trinidad before she had joined them in the U.S. two years later, had spoken about the crack cocaine use and cases of domestic violence at her childhood home in Jamaica, Queens that included an episode in which her father had tried to burn down her house.

During an interview with the New York Times in 2015, Ms. Minaj was asked if she was abused by her father to which she said a no, and confirmed that he was just abusive. She further added that she would always hear him yelling and cursing, always. And, this particular thing made her feel that that was the way to interact because that’s how she saw him interacting, always.

In a 2010 interview with Rolling Stone, Ms. Minaj said that as a child, she always felt that being rich would cure everything and would allow her to take care of her mother so that they could leave her father. And, this is what always drove her. Minaj added on she was extremely terrified of her father and of the fact that he might hurt her mother. She even had nightmares about it.