Nicki Minaj doesn’t care what people have to say about her rumored new beau, Kenneth “Zoo” Petty, despite his checkered background — which includes being a registered sex offender in the state of New York.
The “Bang Bang” rapper, 36, took to Instagram on Monday, December 10, hours after their new relationship made headlines. “Oh they wanna talk?” she captioned a series of pictures that show her straddling Petty, 40, in one shot and her nearly naked in bed with him in a second pic.
“Let’s give’m smthn to talk about,” Minaj added along with the tongue emoji, referring to the 1991 Bonnie Raitt song. “*Shania Twain voice.”
The New York native also responded to a commenter who defended Petty — who was convicted of attempted rape in the first degree for an incident that occurred with a 16-year-old girl in September 1994 — on the thread.
“He was 15, she was 16 … in a relationship,” Minaj replied. “But go awf, Internet. Y’all can’t run my life. Y’all can’t even run y’all own life. Thank you boo.”
Minaj also took to Twitter to “like” multiple tweets in support of her new man, including one that read, “keep making them mad sis 😂🤪 I’m LIVING right now.
One day prior, the “Barbie Dreams” artist seemingly made her new romance Instagram official when she posted a picture of herself with her leg wrapped around Petty as he held her thigh with the lyrics to Adele’s “Hello,” penned alongside the pic.
The sexual assault conviction isn’t the only skeleton in Petty’s closet. According to the New York State Department of Corrections records, he was also convicted of manslaughter. The Blast reports the incident took place in 2002.
Minaj also came under fire when she publicly defended of fellow rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine after he was sentenced to four years probation in October following his 2015 involvement in a sexually explicit video of a teenage girl. The “Anaconda” rapper’s brother, Jelani Maraj, was found guilty in November 2017 of sexual assault on an 11-year-old girl.
