Trina and her family are mourning the loss of her beloved mother, Vernessa “Nessa” Taylor. The Bahamas native died Tuesday (Sept. 3) morning after battling cancer. She was 62.
A rep for Trina confirmed Taylor’s passing in a statement to TMZ. “Thank you all for your kind words and condolences regarding Trina’s mother. It truly gives the family some peace and comfort knowing that ‘Nessa’ lived such a fulfilling life filled with love and abundance.”
In June, Trina posted a picture of her mother with the caption, “My entire world…my strength, my weakness, my reason for never giving up, my peace, my joy, my EVERYTHING.”
Although she didn’t publicize her mother’s cancer battle, Trina reportedly threw her mother a birthday party this past February and posted “F**k Cancer” on Instagram later that month. She also paid homage to Taylor on “Mama” from her new album, The One. The song, which she released last year on Mother’s Day, was the result of a phone conversation between the “B.A.P.S.” rapper and her mother. “My mom was kind of sick when I was in the studio making this song and I was in a really down place,” she shared with Grammy.com last year. “I was just in there recording one night finishing my album and I called her on the phone, she wasn’t feeling so good, and so that inspired the song.”
In a 2017 interview with Hot 97, Trina recalled the first time Taylor heard the explicit version of her breakout verse on Trick Daddy’s 1998 single, “Naan Ni**a.” Being that Trina was only 19 years old at the time, she was nervous for her mom to hear the song.
“They were at some kids’ game and one of her friends gave her the Trick [Daddy] CD and it had the song on it and she heard it,” Trina told radio personality Nessa. “She was like, ‘little girl what is wrong with your mouth? I was just like ‘me and my friends were having a good time. This is hip-hop ma, you don’t know about hip-hop.”
Trina joked that her mother “eventually” got on board with the single, and her daughter’s “potty mouth.”
Watch the full interview below (skip to the 14:44 for the conversation about Taylor).