Minaj says she has been ‘haunted’ by teen abortion
In 2014, much ink was spilled debating whether rapper Nicki Minaj was making a bold feminist statement with her controversial song (and album cover) Anaconda.
That this conversation was happening around her music seemed to mark a moment for Minaj. Whether she intended it or not, the new album helped her transition from a rising star fighting to establish her place in the genre, to someone whose work might have an impact on a broader social and political debate.
Now Minaj has more to say. This time she has opened up about two fairly controversial issues: her abortion as a teenager, and the recent wave of protests sparked by the deaths Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
In a revealing interview with Rolling Stone, Minaj discussed her pregnancy while in high school and her subsequent abortion. She explained in more detail that the unexpected pregnancy was the result of a relationship she had with an older New York man while she was a student at the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in Manhattan. The decision to end the pregnancy “haunted” her.
“I was a teenager. It was the hardest thing I’d ever gone through,” she said in the interview. “It’d be contradictory if I said I wasn’t pro-choice. I wasn’t ready. I didn’t have anything to offer a child.”
Minaj was also asked why black hiphop artists seemed largely reticent to comment on the recent wave of protests following the non-indictment of two white police officers in the deaths of Brown and Garner. She noted that hip hop’s cultural power has diminished since Public Enemy made a statement with Fight the Power.
“But look what happened to Kanye (West) when he spoke out. People told him to apologize to (President George W.) Bush!” Minaj said.