It’s been three years since Nicki Minaj and Meek Mill ended their two-year relationship, but there is still bad blood between the two.
After years of sparring in interviews and online, tensions came to a head at the top of 2020 when they were caught on camera engaged in a verbal altercation in West Hollywood. Fans hoped that would be the end of it, but they returned only weeks later, this time on Twitter with more claims. Some of the remarks included details about their family members and allegations of physical abuse. See a timeline of Nicki Minaj and Meek Mill’s fallout below.
January 2017: Nicki Minaj and Meek Mill break up
After two years of dating, Nicki Minaj and Meek Mill officially called it quits at the beginning of January 2017. An insider at E! News attributed the split to constant fighting. "They were fighting on and off for a little while about a few topics that upset Nicki. They had a bigger fight and then called it quits," the source said. Nicki later confirmed the news on Twitter on January 5, 2017, writing, “Yes, I am single. Focusing on my work & looking forward to sharing it with you guys really soon.” While Minaj appeared to take the high route, Meek responded with a message of his own on Instagram. Many fans believed Meek was throwing shade at his ex by sharing a photo of shoes that Nicki wore in the music video of Ciara’s break up song, “I’m Out.”
December 2018: Meek Mill finds out he’s blocked on social media
At this point, the ex-lovers appeared to be living their separate lives. Meek was getting back on track with his music, and Nicki was said to be dating Kenneth Petty, her current husband. But when Meek Mill participated in a Twitter interview session called #AskMeek, he was forced to answer some questions about his past romance. One fan quickly asked the rapper how he felt about Nicki’s new boyfriend, to which Meek replied: "I don’t feel nothing... and I don’t know that man to judge him." He also revealed that when he attempted to do some research on Petty, he found out he was blocked from Nicki’s social media.
May 2018: Meek Mill says he didn’t appreciate Nicki talking about his prison case
Tensions began to rise in public after Nicki Minaj commented on Meek’s then-ongoing probation case. At the time, Meek’s team accused Judge Brinkley, the judge who presided over the rapper’s decade-long case, of acting with bias. Meek’s initially claimed that Nicki was a witness to some of Judge Brinkley’s unfair treatment, but during an interview with Zane Lowe, the Queens artist seemed to recall a different story. "So, I can’t bad-mouth her because I met her personally, and I know what she said to us. And he knows that, and I know that," she told Lowe. Although he didn't respond at the time, Meek later addressed Nicki’s comments on The Breakfast Club. On the show, he stated that he "wasn't feeling" her remarks. "She shouldn't had said nothing," he continued. "And we leave it at that. I don't feel no way. She know I wasn't feeling that."
August 2018: Nicki Minaj mentions Meek on “Barbie Dreams”
Nicki Minaj's fourth studio album, Queen, arrived in August 2018. One of its lead singles included "Barbie Dreams." On the track, Nicki called out several top names in hip-hop, including her ex-boyfriend. "Meek still be in my DMs, I be having to duck him/'I used to pray for times like this' face ass when I fuck him," she spit. Although many fans thought it was a diss, Nicki clarified that the song was influenced by Biggie Small's "Just Playin' (Dreams)" and 50 Cent’s "How to Rob" and was meant to be comical.
At the time, Meek didn't seem bothered. He shared an emoji on social media following the single's release. But months later, he debunked some of those lyrics in an interview with Vulture. "I ain't get no heads-up [about the song], but I definitely wasn’t in nobody's DMs," he said. "And definitely wasn't nobody ducking me, shit. That's a fact." But it wasn’t all bad blood. He ended it on a good note, saying that he thought the song was "dope."
January 2019: Nicki Minaj and Meek Mill threaten to expose each other’s secrets
In January 2019, Nicki Minaj performed "Barbie Dreams" in front of a packed crowd in Australia. Fan videos showed the rapper reciting the lyrics about Meek Mill as others joined in. What caught everyone's attention, though, is that Nicki decided to add a few extra lines at the end of her verse. "I could tell you secrets but I won't, 'cause being a bitter bitch is what I don't," she said. As for what secrets, Nicki didn't elaborate. Nevertheless, the video was seen by many, including Meek, who took to Twitter to respond. "Why you be sooo mad and not the people that came right at ya neck,” he wrote in a now-deleted tweet. "I'm cool. I'm doing good lol, something is wrong here… Leave me alone. You know I get a lil too out of control with the truth!”
February 2019: Nick Minaj drops “Barbie Goin’ Bad”
In February 2019, Nicki surprised fans with a new single titled, "Barbie Goin' Bad." The track was a freestyle over Meek and Drake's original song, "Going Bad," which was released one month before. "Goin' Bad" was particularly significant at the time because it marked the first time Meek and Drake reunited on wax since their 2015 beef. On Nicki's rendition, she appears to mock their reconciliation, rapping, "When you lose the Queen, ni**as friendly, dog/It was just back to back like Wembley, dog/Now you all the way back up in the Bentley, dog/I turn lemons into lemonade simply, dog/Old boy and my brother tried to end me, dog."
After catching wind of Nicki’s freestyle, Meek hit back on Instagram, accusing her of being "salty." "She’s saltyyyyyy or should I say they," he wrote in the caption. "My level up going crazy and I feel it while it’s happening."
March 2019: James Harden leaks snippet of Nicki and Kenneth Petty diss
A month after Nicki's vicious freestyle, Houston Rockets star James Harden teased an unreleased song from Meek Mill on Instagram. On the track, Meek was heard taking subliminal shots at Nicki and her then-fiancee, Kenneth Petty. "This shit beyond me/You was supposed to be my Beyoncé," he rapped. "Now you this nigga fiancé? What? Fuck you mean you feel a connection?/He listen to you, what?/This nigga wear Balenciaga with boot cut jeans/What the fuck you losing your mind?”
January 2020: Meek Mill gets into verbal altercation with Nicki and Kenneth Petty
With Hollywood being such a small place, it's not much of a surprise that Nicki Minaj and Meek Mill bumped into each other eventually. What fans didn’t expect, though, is the events that ensued. According to video obtained byTMZ, Meek, Nicki and her husband, Kenneth Petty, engaged in a verbal altercation after they ran into each other at a store in West Hollywood. In the video, Petty can be heard calling Meek a "pussy," as Nicki yells "bitch" several times. Meek doesn’t appear to call the couple any names, but is heard saying, "Can’t talk to me one-on-one." It’s unclear how the fight actually started, but sources told TMZ that both parties engaged in a "stare-down" before Meek eventually approached them.
February 2020: Nicki Minaj and Meek go back and forth on Twitter
Weeks after their verbal altercation, Nicki hopped on Twitter to diss Meek. "Trigger fingers turn to #Twitterfingers bad built face ass obsessed with the Queen," she wrote. The post seemed to be in response to the Hollywood incident. She then followed up by citing old interviews in which Meek spoke about her. "Nigga been tweeting bout my man for a year now. Talking bout he went to my page to see him but he was blocked," she continued. "My nigga, move on. I know ya btch embarrassed. Shitted yaself in that store when u got pressed tho."
Not amused by her comments, Meek responded on Twitter minutes later. In his tweets, he accused Nicki of paying for lawyer fees for her brother, Jelani Maraj, who was recently sentenced to 25 years to life for raping an 11-year-old girl. Nicki also accused Meek of spitting on his sister and taping it, as well as physically abusing her during their two-year relationship. Before they mutually dropped the Twitter war, Meek denied allegations that he beat women. You can see a full outline of their tweets here.
