Nicki Minaj responded to allegations from an attorney she has gang ties with one of New York’s most fearsome gangs.
Nicki Minaj has responded to the claim by Jennifer Hough that she and her husband, Kenneth Petty, are affiliated with a gang in New York that threatened her. Hough is suing the Petty’s for $20 million for harassment and threats on her life for allegedly refusing to recant her story that Petty had raped her in 1995.
In new filings at the court, Nicki Minaj denied the allegations raised by Hough’s attorney Tyrone Blackburn.
Blackburn claimed that the Queen rapper and her husband were associated with a faction of the notorious Bloods gang in New York. The attorney even supplied video evidence of the rapper and her husband seen with alleged members of the infamous gang in Jamaica, Queens in the past.
According to Blackburn, the gang in question is the Makk Balla Brims gang based in Queens, New York.
“[Kenneth] Petty and Maraj were both in this district, in Jamaica, Queens, New York,” Blackburn claimed. “As seen on an Instagram live video currently up on Maraj’s Instagram page, both Maraj and Petty were seen associating with members of the Makk Ballers set of the Bloods Gang. Petty and Maraj are both members of this gang.”
However, Nicki Minaj said the allegations are false, and she sought to explain the video, which stems from a post she made from October 2021, saying it is just exuberant fans she ran into.
“I was quickly surrounded by my fans, particularly in this instance because my pink Rolls Royce was in the direct sightline of apartment buildings across the street from where I had stopped. While my husband and I recognized a few friends and acquaintances from the neighborhood that night, including Rico Danna, an artist whom I intend to sign to my label, none of them belong to any gang,” Nicki explained to the Judge.
She added, “Further, we did not plan to meet anyone in advance because we had not planned to stop there. Once I came out of the car, the news traveled quickly, and people just showed up.”
The rapper also responded to Blackburn’s claim that she and her husband threw up gang signs in the video, “Neither I, my husband, nor anyone I knew made any ‘gang’ signs that night. I did not mention [Hough] or this case that night. Nor did I hear anyone, including my husband, mention [Hough] or this case that night.”
The lawsuit by Hough is seeking damages for witness intimidation and claims that persons associated with the Petty’s who are part of a gang have sent threats to Hough.
Blackburn said gang members sent her threats on Twitter, saying, “Jennifer if you see this, the Makks are coming to get you.”
The lawsuit stems from Kenneth Petty’s 1994 rape case in which he served time for raping Jennifer Hough, who claims that she has been harassed and allegedly bribed to recant her story so that Petty will not face legal trouble with regards to his California charge for failing to register as a sex offender in which he faces 5-10 years on sentencing.
Petty has since filed a motion to persuade the court to grant him a suspended sentence instead of jail time for the offense.
