Source: Stephane Cardinale – Corbis / Getty
Nicki Minaj has certainly dated some interesting guys over the years, but no one can top the new man she’s parading around on Instagram.
She’s currently claiming a 40-year-old guy named Kenneth “Zoo” Petty who, at least according to the New York Division of Criminal Justice Services database, is a registered sex offender. He was reportedly convicted in 1995 of attempted rape in the first degree after using a weapon to carry out his assault against a minor. He was, at the time, 16, and was sentenced to between 18 to 54 months in state prison and served almost four years in a New York State prison.
If that weren’t enough, he also pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of a man named Lamont Robinson in 2002. He served seven years in prison, being released in 2013, and was on supervised release until this year.
Whether you’re a fan of Minaj’s or not, her affiliation with someone with a violent criminal history is enough to make anyone concerned. But Minaj, who recently turned 36 over the weekend, is clapping back at critics. While defending him on Instagram, she said of the attempted rape situation, “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 ya’ll own life.”
So in case you were wondering, Minaj is aware of his background. TMZ claims they are old friends from Queens. And no, she doesn’t care what you think about it:
In the hopes of trolling/pissing people off further, Minaj has shared quite a few pictures and video of herself with Petty while enjoying a birthday getaway in Turks and Caicos:
She first posted a picture of Petty back in November:
She told the Internet to “go awf” and they certainly have, especially when one considers her friendship and musical collaborations with rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine (he published video online of a minor performing a sexual act), and her brother Jelani’s situation (found guilty of predatory sex against a child under 13). Check out reactions to her…whatever her affiliation is with Petty below, and by hitting the flip.
