Who were the members of Hood$tars? Nicki Minaj's short-lived rap group explored

Nicki Minaj was an aspiring actress before she ventured into the world of rap, where she ultimately found her calling. With five studio albums, four headlining world tours, and countless achievements and awards under her belt, Minaj is one of the wealthiest and most followed female rappers in the world today.

However, like many other rappers, Nicki also had her humble beginnings in the 2000s. While she credits Lil Wayne - and signing with his Young Money label - for changing her life, her career began much earlier than that.

In the early 2000s, Nicki Minaj was part of a music group called Hood$tars, which consisted of Safaree Samuels, 7even-Up, Scaff B, and Lou$tar.

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Nicki Minaj left Hood$tars to sign with Dirty Money in 2007

According to Nicki Minaj's fandom, she released six songs as a member of Hood$tars:

• Batman
• Don't Mess With
• Hot 97 Freestyle
• La La Means I Love You
• Lean Back
• You, Me, Him, and Her

In April 2004, the group was also featured in a Park Slope song, titled La Dee Da De (We Like 2 Party).

However, the music group disintegrated soon afterward. In 2005, 7even-UP went to prison, and Minaj returned to her day jobs, with only Lou$tar and Scaff B as a group. Later, the rapper also pursued a solo career as a rapper, with Safaree Samuels by her side. The. The couple had just started dating at the time.

Later in 2007, Dirty Money Entertainment signed her.

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Minaj dated Safaree Samuels for 12 years after leaving Hood$tars

Nicki Minaj left the Hood$tars with Safaree by her side, who continued to be her hype man for the longest time. While the duo had planned to pursue rap as independent artists, Samuels remained unsigned even when Minaj signed her second label deal with Young Money Entertainment in 2009.

In her 2010 track, Super Bass, Nicki's boyfriend appeared in a dancing cameo in its music video. The couple remained together for 12 years before they broke up in 2014.

It was in 2011 that things first started to turn sour between Nicki and Safaree, with the two often appearing irritated with one another in public. Minaj's fans started to speculate a rift between the couple long before things actually came to an end.

Safaree remained bitter towards Minaj for a significant amount of time following their break up. Eventually, the former started a career in reality TV, while the latter continued to grow in her rap career.

A year after her break up with Samuels, Nicki started dating another rapper - Meek Mill.

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Samuels called his break up with Nicki a dark time

Earlier this year, Samuels was invited as a guest on the We In Miami podcast. The episode, which went live on July 9, witnessed the TV personality opening up about his breakup with Nicki Minaj ten years ago. He said:

" I was with Nicki, we broke up. Her fans and certain people they just wanted it to be like, 'OK they not together no more. F**k him, let it be nothing. Let him disintegrate, let him disappear, whatever.' "

Safaree also touched upon Minaj's relationship with Meek Mill and how it made things more problematic for him at the time, adding:

"You gotta think about I had two of the biggest people in the world against me. That meant everybody would be against me. So nobody wanted to be next to me. Nobody wanted to work with me or none of that sh*t. So it just made everything hard and that sh*t that was a dark time for me."

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Nicki Minaj and Meek Mill broke up pin 2017 after which she briefly dated Nas, and they parted ways amicably. It was in 2018 when the rapper reunited with her now-husband and childhood sweetheart, Kenneth Petty. They tied the knot in 2019 and welcomed their son in 2020.