Jelani Maraj: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Nicki Minaj Brother Jelani Maraj

(Instagram)

Rapper Nicki Minaj’s older brother has been accused of raping a 12-year-old girl in Long Island. The 37-year-old Jelani Maraj was arrested on December 3 in the town of Baldwin where he lives with his wife of five months, Jacqueline Robinson. Maraj is Nicki Minaj’s original last name. Like his sister, Maraj was born in Trinidad. Their family moved to New York City when he was nine years old, settling in Queens. In a tweet that Maraj sent out in June 2014, he said “Maraj Family ain’t a typical family so all you other people please sit the hell down.” Their brother, Micaiah, would later be born in America.

Here’s what we know so far:


1. He’s Being Charged With First-Degree Rape

Jelani Maraj Twitter page

(Twitter)

Newsday reports that he was arrested and charged in Nassau, Long Island, on December 3. His charges are first-degree rape and first-degree course of sexual conduct against a child. He was released on a $100,000 bail. The exact relationship between Maraj and the victim was not specified. A source told the New York Daily News that his victim was “someone he had access to.”


2. Minaj Paid $30,000 for Maraj’s Wedding in August 2015

In August 2015, Minaj paid over $30,000, for her brother’s wedding to Jacqueline Robinson, at Coral Houses in Baldwin, New York. At the time, the rapper wrote on Instagram “Can’t believe I cried during his wedding and his first dance like a punk…May God bless him and his union. Tonight has been one of my favorite nights of all time. I do anything to see my brothers smile.”

TMZ later reported that Minaj left her $11,000 dress at the wedding venue.


3. He Was Mentioned in Minaj’s Abortion Confession Song ‘All Things Go’

Minaj’s song “All Thing Go,” from her album The Pinkprint, pays tribute to Maraj. Famously, that was the song where Minaj admitted that she had an abortion as a teenager. The lyrics in the song read:

My child with Aaron, would’ve have been sixteen, any minute. So in some ways I feel like ‘Caiah, is the both of them / It’s like he’s ‘Caiah’s little angel, looking over him / And I know Jelani will always love me, and I’ll always love him / And I’m just his little sister not Nicki Minaj when I’m around him.


4. He Owns a Day Care in Queens

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According to his Twitter page, Maraj is the owner of Ozone Park Daycare in Queens, New York. In one tweet he sent out in 2014, Maraj said that he wanted to open another day care branch in New Jersey.


5. This Is Another Chapter in Minaj’s Tragic Family Story

nikci minaj, nicki minaj net worth

(Getty)

Nicki Minaj’s family had a tough upbringing in New York City. That was thanks in part to their father’s drug and alcohol problems. In December 1987, during a violent outburst, Maraj and Nicki Minaj’s dad burned their house down. Minaj described their upbringing saying “I don’t think I had a lot of discipline in my household. My mom motivated me, but it wasn’t a strict household. I kind of wanted a strict household.”