Posted by The song lyrics have a precise meaning: in Are You Gone Already, Nicki Minaj talks about her father and her son, let’s explore its meaning.
It’s Nicki Minaj’s fifth studio album, Pink Friday 2, released for the singer’s 41 birthday on December 8, 2023. And, as you can imagine, the music world was turned upside down by the release: the Trinidadian-born rapper is one of those artists able to drive people’s musical tastes, especially inside the hip-hop/rap dimension. The album contains tracks we already know, like Red Ruby da Sleeze and Super Freaky Girl, and includes collaborations with famous personalities like Drake, Future, J. Cole, Lil Wayne, and Lil Uzi Vert.
However, the album’s opening song, Are You Gone Already, is something different. A slow, emotional track centered on Nicki Minaj’s voice, with a sample from Billie Eilish’s famous hit When The Party’s Over. The song lyrics are particularly delicate: they represent a message to the singer’s dead father and, at the same time, a conversation between her and her three-year-old son.
Nicki Minaj, Are You Gone Already: what’s the meaning of the lyrics?
In the Are You Gone Already lyrics, Nicki Minaj symbolically talks to her father, who died on February 12, 2021, and her son, who’s three years old today. From the song, we understand that her baby never met the grandpa: at some point, Nicki talks to “Papa,” referring to her son’s nickname, Papa Bear.
You never got to meet Papa
He sweet proper, he keep mama
On my toes
Nicki Minaj has always had a complicated relationship with her father. As fully explained in this article on People, Nicki’s dad, Robert Maraj, has had many problems with drugs, and he was violent with Nicki’s mom. As she confessed in this 2010 interview with Rolling Stone, as a young woman, she used to ask God to make her rich so she could leave home and take care of her mother. Below are her words from that interview:
“When I first came to America, I would go in my room and kneel down at the foot of my bed and pray that God would make me rich so that I could take care of my mother. Because I always felt like if I took care of my mother, my mother wouldn’t have to stay with my father, and he was the one, at that time, that was bringing us pain. We didn’t want him around at all, and so I always felt like being rich would cure everything, and that was always what drove me.”
This would explain why Nicki Minaj wasn’t close to her father after her baby was born, and gives a precise meaning to the song’s title, Are You Gone Already, and its lyrics.
The singer doesn’t feel she had a normal family in her childhood, preventing her from enjoying the pleasure people usually have with loved ones around and a newborn at home. Nicki’s lyrics are intertwined with the lines from Billie Eilish’s song, showing her sadness for the nice family she never had. While Nicki Minaj mentions her son never met her dad, Billie Eilish’s go like this:
I could lie, say I like it like that
Like it like that
Are You Gone Already also mentions that Nicki Minaj’s dad was ready to take a flight and visit her, meeting Papa Bear. But apparently, he died before that could happen: as reported by the news magazine, her father died because of a hit-and-run. He was brought to the hospital in critical condition and died a few hours later.
You booked a flight in three days
You’d meet papa
The waiting, the gazing
[…]
The praying, the shaking
[…]
I must admit, my heart was racing
Telephone waiting, make it
I just believed you wakin’
A memory in the makin’
Call me
Won’t you call me? (Call)
No, you gone
That left Nicki Minaj with this emptiness: she talks to her son, showing her love, exposing her deepest thoughts. She never felt loved; she says she never really found happiness, and that’s a burden that still impacts her life and how she acts as a mother. That’s why Nicki Minaj asks for her son’s forgiveness. She talks to him like he can understand the depth of these considerations, and she acknowledges that Papa Bear is already smart enough to understand many aspects of this.
Why would anyone want to love me?
Rich, yes, but are you happy?
All this guilt you carry is heavy
You’ve already made your peace with me
One day, you’ll have to forgive mommy
But she knows you know too much already
Reading the lyrics, you surely catch the intensity of Are You Gone Already and its meaning: three years have passed since her father’s death; Nicki Minaj is an adult mother, but she still feels broken by her childhood. The void left by the loving father she never had is still there, and in this song, the singer virtually shares her feelings with her baby. We rarely got the chance to see Nicki Minaj in such an intense dimension. After all, this is what makes this song so unique.
Read other popular song lyrics and their meaning on Auralcrave
The official streaming and the complete lyrics
Below you find the lyrics in Are You Gone Already by Nicki Minaj. You can distinguish Nicki’s original lyrics from Billie Eilish’s lines coming from the sampled song (the words from Billie Eilish are in italics).
Don’t you know I’m no good for you?
I’ve learned to lose you, can’t afford to
Tore my shirt to stop you bleedin’
But nothin’ ever stops you leavin’
Quiet when I’m coming home and I’m on my own
You never got to meet Papa (I could lie, say I like it like that)
He sweet proper, he keep mama (Like it like that)
On my toes, I needed help (I could lie, and say I like it like that)
You booked a flight in three days (Like it like that)
You’d meet papa (Mm)
The waiting, the gazing
The painting, the raging
The raving, the pacing
The praying, the shaking
I must admit, I was breaking
I must admit, I was taking
I must admit, my heart was racing
Telephone waiting, make it
I just believed you wakin’
A memory in the makin’
Call me
Won’t you call me? (Call)
No, you gone
(Are you gone already?)
Are you gone already?
I’ll only hurt you if you let me
Call me friend, but keep me closer
And I’ll call you when the party’s over
Quiet when I’m coming home and I’m on my own
So deal, ‘Nika, it’s real, ‘Nika (I could lie, say I like it like that)
Don’t stress, Onika, so blessed, Onika (Like it like that)
Today, it’s 12/3/23 (I could lie, say I like it like that)
Your baby’s three, he’s the best, Onika (Like it like that)
Set me, set me, set me free
Why didn’t you come back to get me?
Let me, let me, let me be
Why would anyone want to love me?
Rich, yes, but are you happy? (Rich, yes, but are you happy?)
All this guilt you carry is heavy (All of this guilt is heavy)
You’ve already made your peace with me
One day, you’ll have to forgive mommy
But she knows you know too much already (Don’t you know too much already?)
I’ll only hurt you if you let me
Call me friend, but keep me closer
And I’ll call you when the party’s over
Quiet when I’m coming home and I’m on my own
And I could lie, say I like it like that, like it like that (Ah)
Yeah, I could lie, say I like it like that, like it like that
But nothin’ is better sometimes
Once we’ve both said our goodbyes
Let’s just let it go
Let me let you go
Quiet when I’m coming home and I’m on my own
I could lie, say I like it like that, like it like that
I could lie, say I like it like that, like it like that
