Nicki Minaj began dating Kenneth Petty in late 2018. Media outlets began looking into his backstory, especially given that Minaj and Petty seemed to go from “dating” to “super-serious” in about a week. No one had to look that far, his criminal past is public record, especially since he’s a sex offender and murderer who was still on parole when they got together. In 1995, took a plea deal for an attempted rape in the first degree on a then-16-year-old. In 2002, he pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter of Lamont Robinson. Basically, the man had been in and out of prison for the better part of two decades when he married Minaj in 2019. The rape conviction was one of reasons why there was so much initial coverage of Petty – because of that conviction, he has to register as a sex offender wherever he lives (because of Megan’s Law). And because of that, Nicki Minaj was apparently doing the f–king most to somehow get Petty’s victim to recant her story. And in doing so, Minaj made the woman feel unsafe and harassed. Now the woman is suing Nicki and Kenneth Petty:
A woman says rapper Nicki Minaj’s husband raped her while the two were teens in Queens more than 20 years ago — and the couple then harassed her and tried to intimidate her into recanting, according to a new lawsuit.
Jennifer Hough says in her Brooklyn federal-court suit that she was raped by Minaj’s hubby, Kenneth Petty, in 1994, after she encountered him while waiting for the school bus in Jamaica. Petty allegedly approached her at the bus stop — then pulled a knife, held it to her back and led her to a nearby house, where he raped her, according to the suit. After the alleged rape, he got off Hough and stood in front of a mirror while saying, “I am the man. I am the man,” the suit states. Petty was arrested at the time and ended up taking a plea deal, serving more than four years behind bars on the charge of attempted rape, the New York Times reported.
Hough says in her suit that she suffered mental anguish for years after the attack — and then was targeted by Minaj when Petty was arrested in 2020 for failing to register as a sex offender in California over her case. Minaj called Hough on the phone and offered to “help out” her situation, saying she could fly her and her family to California, according to the suit. Hough declined, the suit states.
The “Starships” rapper also allegedly offered to fly her publicist out to meet Hough to craft a statement for her to recant the accusation, the suit alleges. Hough says she refused. Then through a series of encounters, Hough and members of her family were allegedly repeatedly offered cash bribes for as much as $500,000 by Minaj and her associates to get her to recant, the suit says.
In one proposed scheme, an old friend of Hough’s identified as “Black” in the suit told Hough that Minaj would record “happy birthday” videos for Hough’s daughter for her “Sweet 16” if she recanted. Hough says in her suit that she again refused. Hough is seeking unspecified damages for the alleged harassment.
A lawyer for Petty did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A rep for Minaj could not immediately be reached.
I believe Jennifer Hough. I also believe that Nicki Minaj would be stupid enough to think that she could “pay off” Hough to recant her statement after all of this time and that would somehow change anything? Like, Petty still took the plea deal. The rape was not “alleged” – taking a plea deal is the same as a conviction, and he still needs to register as a sex offender. Hough probably also knows that even if she did take some kind of payoff to recant, Minaj would probably turn around and demand that Hough be charged with filing a false police report.
Looking at past coverage too – back when Minaj and Petty got together and the Barbz were on Nicki’s social media, talking about how Petty seemed problematic as f–k because of the rape, Nicki wrote a response to one fan: “He was 15, she was 16 … in a relationship. But go awf Internet. Y’all can’t run my life. Y’all can’t even run y’all own life. Thank you boo.” She said that about her now-husband raping a teenage at knifepoint. Of course she was harassing Jennifer Hough.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
Wow. Reading this actually blew my mind. No dick is this good. Good god.
Darla, while I laugh at “no dick is this good”, I am also in full agreement.
dude is a violent criminal and seems to have no redeeming qualities. he ain’t even good lookin! why she chooses to stay with him is beyond.
actually, scratch that. she seems to be as trashy as he is. threatening a rape victim?! they are more alike than she wants the public to think.
She must really be a horrible person yeah.
Nicki is truly a trash human being. Like…it’s the only explanation when you’re as rich and connected as she is. You could be dating anyone and this is the person you decide to date, lay in bed with, marry and have children with.
The worst past about this entire coupling is the fact that Petty has learned that he has a strong ally and undeniable amount of funds at his disposal. One day Petty will commit another rape or some other violent crime and he will have NM on his side and the funds to defend himself. A person with violent behaviour doesn’t automatically wake up one day and decide NOT to be violent, it’s ingrained in them. One day Petty will do it again, and the cycle will repeat itself.
The fact that NM continues to be the enforcer for her brother and now her husband clearly represents that Petty WILL most likely reoffend. As for the what they have done to Hough, exposes their refusal to be decent human beings and that the their actions are perfectly acceptable, given that she/they continue to it. She needs to be cancelled forever!!
I hope Hough takes them to the cleaners to the point her great grandchildren still feel the repercussions.
Thank you. I wasn’t sure what I was going to type, but you said it all. My God.
Terrible.
She’s a POS. I wish I’d never have to see her face again. She needs to go away forever.
Sometimes I can’t believe people still stan this psycho and her rapist hairband (not forgetting she tried to do the same thing with her rapist brother) and then I remember how horrible people are – as long as you once released a song they liked, then everyone needs to just forgive and forget.
She is the absolute worst and she has always been one of those people that weaponizes her fanbase against anyone she doesn’t like and her fans are just psycho enough to try and do real damage.
Oh I didn’t know about her brother. Jesus.
But that is a theme across many in the music industry isn’t it? As long as they can make bank all is forgotten. One look at the R Kelly documentary will attest to that. And it’s systemic in all genres of music and also in Hollywood.
@Seraphina, like Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Jimmy Page, David Bowie (that one hurts me, but it’s true), Steven Tyler, Ted Nugent, Iggy Pop . . . the list goes on and on, these are just off the top of my head.
Not all rapes, but lots of grooming of young girls, sleeping with girls that are barely pubescent, etc..
There’s also one of the OG music sex scandals with Jerry Lee Lewis. My grandmother went to school with one of his other wives after his young cousin. They were about the same age and said the wife was always known to be a little bit wild so when she married him people weren’t all that shocked, but she was still about the same age of the cousin/wife, possibly a few years younger.
Fame seems to let people get away with almost anything, especially men when the crimes they commit are against women.
Terra, everything you write rings true. I grew up in LA, and I could have gone into the business, but it was too skeevy. My mom worked on the business side, and that alone exposed me to men who wanted sex. She was a professional on the finance side, and men STILL approached me who worked with her. I was 14-15 years old!! Mom and I always handled it. I knew how it was very young. I didn’t know who Harvey Weinstein was, but, to me, everybody in LA was potentially Harvey Weinstein or trying to groom younger women and girls. I was on a movie set at 11 when a man first tried. I had already been forbidden from being alone with strange adults anyplace in the house they were filming in. My mom didn’t allow me to play with the man’s daughter for the rest if my time on set after my mom walked in on him pushing a banana into my stomach with his daughter standing next to me. He was one of the producers, so they had worked together for months, and I knew his daughter well by then.
Girls in big entertainment places, like LA and NY, ESPECIALLY the ones who work in the business or whose parents work in the business, have to have vigilant parents.
Yup. Nicki Minaj is a whole trash bag. It runs in her family too.
So true. The number of women en who harassed me to get me to recant my request that a producer no longer punish me for refusing to have sex with him blew my mind.
Like half of the women on set made me the bad guy, some straight up attacked me at a time when I was literally sick over the harassment from him.
NM has always been problematic. She is poster person for why we do need cancel culture sometimes.
You have my deep admiration for facing that. You are a hero for having to endure it. Sending love and hugs your way. Keeping following your gut, dear lady.
If you are the one chosen sexually, the others around you don’t get it. They aren’t getting bombarded with a bar/sex vibe every time they are alone with him. Sorry, but FUCK THEM!!!
The more I read about her the more I am convinced she is also a terrible person.
She needs to be cancelled.
Offering money is a strategy she always tries to discredit rape victims. In her brother’s case his whole defense was the victims mother supposedly tried to extort his sister to stay quiet. Which, even if it were true, is meaningless and irrelevant because the victim was a child.
Also Nicki has said way more than imply they were in a relationship (they weren’t…but also irrelevant). She also implied the victim was white (she’s not…but also irrelevant) and the prosecution was racially motivated.
It’s also super suspicious and obvious she has a lot of “urban media” like the shaderoom on her payroll as they haven’t covered this at all.
At this point it’s clear water seeks its level. Nicki has chosen to associate herself with sex offenders. From her brother, to tekashi69, and to Kenneth petty. I’m ready to give her what she wants and treat her like any number of other sex offenders and decline to support anything she does from this point forward.
After reading the Rolling Stones article this weekend I blocked Nicki Minaj on my music streaming platforms. She can sit there with DaBaby, Kanye and Chris Brown. I will not even passively add coins to any of their accounts.
I caught wind of some of the Barbz defence of her on Twitter and they can all go right to hell.
Nikki. I didn’t know you could block artists on music streaming platforms. Doing that now.
I didn’t either, thanks.
Yes, thanks.
I will do that and a bunch of others too.
How does it affect their income when we block?
Just Google “blocking artists on XXXXX”. It’s great. Kanye and Chris Brown, were the first two artists I blocked, because their songs show up in the Spotify playlists I follow. I’m always shocked when I read Chris is charting because I haven’t heard music from him in years.
I’m curious to see if Beyonce or Megan thee Stallion records with Nicki Minaj again.
@Eleonora they don’t get the $0.00000001 per stream from my listen. It’s not much, but I’m doing my part. 🙂
OMG I didn’t know you could do that. Doing it now as well
If it was just her husband, or just her brother that she was defending then you could almost understand it. I think it’s natural to believe that the people you love are incapable of such horrible acts. But that she defends both of them shows what kind of person she really is and I believe everything Hough says. The birthday videos for her child…. imagine being so arrogant that you’d think that would convince somebody to recant the truth about being raped. She’s a POS and I hope that Jennifer wins her case against them. I’m glad that she’s standing up to them and refusing to back down under tremendous pressure and I’m glad that she’s once again brought this story back to the attention of the public, even though I’m sure it must be very difficult for her to drag it all up again in such a public arena.
Why on earth did she marry this POS? I just don’t understand
Like attracts like.
Precisely. As wisely stated above, water seeks its level.
She has a sharp, witty, perspective in music. She is horrible now, but I still feel for her. What was it like growing up around predatory people? It makes you talk and function like a predator if you don’t completely reject it at some point. At this point, the narcissism used to survive predators is set.
a while back I might have said “she could do SO MUCH better” but…
…I’m starting to believe that maybe she can’t. she’s trash like him.
I hope Jennifer cleans their clocks.
That is all.
Agreed.
Nicki and her violent POS husband (he looks as if he’s about to boil over in these pics — never a good sign…) should be drained and cxx’ld forever.
This is awful! If the rape wasn’t enough, the whole first degree murder conviction should have been enough to rethink things. I will say one thing though, this isn’t related to this story. But years ago, I worked with at-risk youth and one of the kids we helped was an 18 year old that went to jail for rape. It was his girlfriend that was 16 and he was 17 at the time. Her parents didn’t like him so they reported him. It ruined his life. That stuff happens, clearly not with Petty, but it does.
Kind of OT to the story, but yes, that does happen. It happened to my uncle. He went to prison on a charge of Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Minor. It gets sticky, though, because he was only charged with that because they’d already charged him for Statutory Rape and dismissed the case several months before, so they couldn’t bring the same charge again.
The girl was 14 and told him she was 18. He was 19. She apparently had a history of what her parents considered inappropriate sexual behavior and so to punish her they had my uncle charged. The second charge was a complete surprise to him and he only found out about it when he was stopped at a routine checkpoint on July 4th. The girl’s stepfather was an ex-Sherriff’s officer and one of his buddies did him a favor and my uncle went to prison for eight years, sending my grandmother into deep debt to pay for his probation attorney.
He’s been out for many years now and is married with two stepchildren and a six-year-old daughter. He can’t go to school events because he’s not allowed around kids and the kids can’t have friends over for the same reason. He drinks and is bitter about everything to the point where my grandmother, who always had a soft spot for her boys, tells his wife she should leave him. He’s not in prison any longer physically, but mentally it seems as if he’s never really made it out.
That’s so sad. I’m so sorry.
Your poor uncle. It absolutely does happen. I of a young man who lost a scholarship that way.
@Busyann and @terra Speaking to the wrongful convictions where young men are being “taught a lesson” by vengeful relatives: This is so horrible. It happens all the time to BIPOC especially men and with this country’s history of white women’s tears that often are the cause for so many lost lives, whether the man is killed, imprisoned or as you mention, released but life ruined and as if he is still imprisoned because in this country, in many ways, he still is. Honestly, I see this kind of thing, *the wrongful convictions, I mean*, and then that story out now about the woman whose two children were taken from her by state police who said the child was malnourished?!, one a 10-day old baby, and I’m just so thankful as a Black woman in Amerikkka that I don’t have kids. I know it may sound fatalistic, but my heart can’t bear it. I honestly can’t even handle dating anyone who has kids because I know I wouldn’t make it through if anything happened to them. I just couldn’t. More power to those who still have hope. This country is the worst.
As far as NM, may she get all she deserves coming to her for her evil enabling behavior. I called this s*** years ago but just like with KW bs, no one wanted to hear it. Okay, well, now all is being revealed.
I am so sorry. This is my worst fear, as a mom to a boy. I have always just believed whatever women say, but now that I have an 11 year old penis in my house, I am seeing all the sides of how this can go so very wrong.
This story is all around sad.
She is a horrific person. Supporting rapists and pedophiles. I never liked her, this makes me sick to my stomach.
I didn’t know much about Nikki Minaj other than seeing her videos and music here and there. I’ve never been a fan. Her actions regarding Jennifer Hough are indefensible. I do wonder if Nikki herself is a victim of domestic and or sexual abuse. Her brother is a predator. She married a predator. Her behavior is very codependent and in line with someone who grew up if not outright abused then witnessing some pretty unhealthy behavior patterns. I wonder if she’s ever seen a healthy intimate relationship modeled. I don’t know a lot about her background but clearly she needs a serious intervention and mental-emotional reconditioning in addition to the legal action Jennifer Hough is taking.
I was a Minaj fan and respected her talent for what it was, however, once she got with Petty and that stuff with her brother I stopped being a fan full stop. Inexcusable behavior.
Sickening and disheartening. It’s so sad that a woman is this pathetic ro choose this evil POS but then to top it she is intimidating the victim. Omg.
Where are the stans from the last post? Minaj has proven again and again she’s utter trash, her husband and her are made for each other. And omg you can have so much money, but still look super cheap lol
As a former stan, I’m going to hazard a guess it is because they also no longer stan her, but maybe it is just me.
It’s going to be poetic justice if they wind up having to pay her over harassment for trying to bribe her.
Let’s not forget Nicki defended her child rapist brother for years until it was clear that he was going to jail.
She and he are both horrible people.