Nicki Minaj stays "on top" of her multimillion-dollar fortune for the sake of her family.
The 39-year-old rap star has a two-year-old son - who she nicknames Papa Bear in the media - with Kenneth Petty and vowed that she would "never" be one of those rappers who has "nothing" to leave behind for her children after promising her family that she would make them rich.
She said: "I vowed I would never be one of these black women, these men, these black rappers that make all this money and then have nothing to leave for their kids. I would promise my family since I was a kid, 'I’m going to get rich and buy you a house.' I had all these big dreams, but it was always important to me what I was going to leave behind. So even though I’m not even halfway where I’m trying to go financially, I know that no one is going to be on top of my stuff more than me. And I feel like as women, people always assume that they can play with you, for lack of a better term, and I just can’t have that. I have to leave something behind because we work hard. Yo, this industry, it takes so much out of you mentally, man. And to do all of this and then not have anything to show for it? I refuse!"
The 'Super Bass' hitmaker - who has a reported net worth of $130 million - was then asked to share one of her "biggest life lessons" and explained that she wished people understood how to "save" their money because "anyone" can go bankrupt.
Speaking to Jada Pinkett-Smith for Interview magazine, she said: "I saw this girl one day, and she said that the person she’s affiliated with has the kind of money where he’ll never go broke. And my hand hit my head immediately like, 'Girl, you did not just say that.' If Mike Tyson could go broke, anybody can. I want people to understand the money that these labels and these endorsement deals throw at you at the beginning of your career, and all these advances that you get, baby, those ain’t going to come every year.
"Thank God I did keep getting money, because I was spending kinda crazy[when I made my first album]. But I wish people understood, save your money. Every time people come to my house, they think they’re going to see 20 cars in the driveway, living la vida loca. No, no, no. I don’t have nobody to prove anything to. I’m quite happy. Thank god that I could not work for the last couple of years and still be good!"
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