Nicki Minaj nearly died last week but didn’t call an ambulance in case the recording ended up on TMZ

Nicki Minaj says she nearly died last week, but curiously decided not to phone an ambulance because she didn’t want the recording to end up on gossip site TMZ.

She made the revelation during her acceptance speech as she collected Best Female Hip-Hop artist at the BET Awards for the fifth consecutive year.

“The other day, literally I didn't tell anybody this, I really thought I was about to die,” she said. “Like, I was saying my prayers to die.

"And I didn't even want to call the ambulance because I thought, 'Well if I call the ambulance, it's going to be on TMZ.’

“I would rather sit there and die. And it made me realise I don't care what anybody got to say. I'm going to do me.”

She didn’t explain how she nearly died, but is presumably feeling better now.

In her impassioned, somewhat erratic speech, she also praised herself for writing her own songs - said to be a thinly veiled jibe at her alleged rap nemesis Iggy Azalea.

“I’m still one of the only emcees that’s out here spitting metaphors and making you think,” she said, before adding contradictorily, “And I really don’t even care if I get my credit or if I don’t.”

Of course, someone who was not in pursuit of a mass pat on the back would definitely be listing their respective achievements to an audience of thousands. She definitely does not want any glory, none, none at all.

She ‘thanks God that I’ve been placed in a position to represent women in a culture that is so male driven’, then confusingly says she doesn’t look at herself as a female rapper because “I know what I do”.

“Young money to the death of me,” she says before swaggering off stage, concluding her curious speech.