Vernessa ‘Nessa’ Taylor, the mother of Miami rapper Trina, passed away on Tuesday after a battle with cancer. She was 62 at the time.
A spokesperson for Trina confirmed the tragic news to TMZ, stating the family has requested privacy while they mourn the departed.
“Much thanks to all of you for your thoughtful words and sympathies with respect to Trina’s mom,” the agent told the outlet. “It really gives the family some harmony and solace realizing that ‘Nessa’ lived such a satisfying life loaded up with adoration and wealth.”
Trina offered her tribute to Taylor on the Kelly Price-assisted “Mama,” the closing track of her 2019 album The One. The song was announced as a single in 2017 and received an official video way back in November. The singer of Miami origin granted the Recording Academy a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the visual, and shed some light on what inspired the record.
“My mom was very sick when I was in the studio making this song, and I was in a really down place,” she told the Academy. “… I called her on the phone, [but] she wasn’t feeling so good, so that inspired the song. I just went into the studio with all these emotions … and that’s how it came out.”
She added: “Respect, admire, love your mom,” says Trina. “You can get only one mom in the whole world. You can never, ever get another one. No matter what happens, one only comes your way, that’s a blessing.”
Earlier this year, Trina uploaded a picture of her mum on social media with the caption: ‘My entire world…my strength, my weakness, my reason for never giving up, my peace, my joy, my EVERYTHING.’
She is reported to have thrown Nessa a birthday party in February and posted ‘f**k cancer’ on her Instagram later that month.