Nicki Minaj is on the new Vogue cover for December 2023, where she discussed various aspects of her career and personal life. One of these moments was about a time when Minaj had been living in Atlanta to work on her career. After experiencing menstrual cramps, she was prescribed Percocet — but the way she was taking it soon went beyond using it for the standard pain.
“No one told me that this was a narcotic and this was addictive,” Minaj said. “Luckily I was able to ground myself. But — once an addict, always an addict. I feel like if you’ve ever experienced addiction to anything, which I have, you always have to think twice and three times about the choices that you make.”
Minaj pointed out that many big stars struggled with self-medication as a way of escapism. She also reflected on the history of addiction in her own family, as her late father struggled with hard substance abuse — and that her mom didn’t really understand it.
“I think about watching my father go back and forth, and I just wish that at the time I understood that he wasn’t doing it because he wanted to,” she said. “I thought that he was making a conscious effort to be addicted to a drug that would have him steal his children’s video games and sell them for money. Think about that — who would make a conscious effort to do that? Now I realize, those people weren’t making those choices because they wanted to hurt their family. Addiction took over their bodies and their lives. They were victims too.”