Posted by Before Nicki Minaj was the self-professed Queen of Rap, she was just another kid growing up in the gritty Queens borough of New York City. On Monday (May 17), the multi-platinum rapper was apparently reflecting on her past when she decided to post an old mugshot of hers on Instagram. Although she quickly deleted it, the post was immortalized on Twitter.
“It took me years to be able to look at things like this,” she wrote in the since-deleted caption. “Criminal possession with the intent to use. I did use it tho. This is so inspiring to look back. The girl was leaking blood and spent days in the hospital. The word on the street was that I was gonna b deported. I was so scared. LOL. I was ‘on the run.’ I rlly thought I was in a ghetto movie. I hid my car and went to stay with my Aunt in Brooklyn chile. Bwahahahaaaa. #Growth.”
The post included two mugshots of a 20-year-old Nicki under her government name, Onika Maraj, and other pertinent information at the time. [Her social security number has been blurred out to protect her privacy.]
Nicki Minaj tweets & deletes her old mugshot ? pic.twitter.com/OrbIGs56s2
— HipHopDX (@HipHopDX) May 17, 2021
Eighteen years have passed since Nicki’s arrest and obviously life is a lot different for the rap superstar. Not only is she married and the mother of a baby boy, the 38-year-old is also one of the biggest female artists in music history. On Friday (May 14), Nicki made her triumphant return with the release of an expanded version of her 2009 mixtape Beam Me Up Scotty.
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The project came with a handful of new tracks, including “Seeing Green” with her Young Money brethren Lil Wayne and Drake. But in a candid social media moment, Nicki admitted she didn’t feel like her bars stacked up next to Wayne and Drizzy’s.
“All I know is that they washed me on #SeeingGreen,” she tweeted on Saturday (May 15). “I’m a woman enough to admit when I’ve been washed on a track by the Greats. And it’s ok #Barbz I’ve washed them b4. We’ll live through this one. I was still a lil rusty. I washed them in my head on #Fractions.”
Whatever the case, Nicki’s fans are simply thrilled she’s back in the mix and her “semi-retirement” is seemingly over.
Check out the updated version of Beam Me Up Scotty below.