Are Drake And Nicki Minaj Still Close?
Drake and Nicki Minaj are two of the most prolific hip-hop artists of the last decade. Both burst into the spotlight at the turn of the 2010s under Lil Wayne's Young Money Entertainment label, collaborating on songs like "BedRock," "Moment 4 Life," and "Seeing Green," according to CheatSheet. At the beginning of their careers, they were like two peas in a pod, even sparking dating rumors. On his 2010 song "Miss Me," Drake rapped, "I love Nicki Minaj, I told her I'd admit it / I hope one day we get married just to say we f****n' did it," via Genius. He clarified the lyric in an interview with MTV that summer, saying, "That line on the album is just me playing with her. I'll be playing with her for years until she's ready to go, and then I'm ready."
Two months later, it appeared Minaj was in fact ready to go, as Drake tweeted, "Please refer to @nickiminaj as Mrs. Aubrey Drake Graham and dont stare at her too long. She's finally mine.🙂" Minaj seemed to confirm the news, tweeting, "Yes, its true. Drake and I tied the knot." Although she tweeted two days later that they had decided to have their "marriage" annulled, the two rappers remained close friends.
But three years later, there seemed to be trouble in paradise.
Nicki Minaj was in the middle of Drake's feud with Meek Mill
On Drake's 2013 track "Tuscan Leather," he revealed that there was tension in his relationship with Nicki Minaj. "Not even talkin' to Nicki, communication is breakin,'" he rapped, via Genius. Minaj revealed she was upset that Drake did not include her, or any Young Money alumni, on his latest album. "I'm Young Money 'til the death of me," she said in a 2013 interview with DJ Whoo Kid, via BET. "I'm always going to want my team to be a part of my project, no matter what, in some way." The pair made up but hit another roadblock in 2015 when Drake began feuding with Minaj's then-boyfriend Meek Mill.
Meek Mill began the beef, tweeting that Drake didn't write his own raps. In a follow-up, he claimed that had he known Drake didn't write his verse on their collab track "R.I.C.O.," Meek Mill would have taken it off the album. Drake responded by releasing two diss tracks, "Charged Up" and "Back to Back." In "Charged Up," Drake implies he hooked up with Minaj, while in "Back to Back," he claimed Meek Mill's relationship with Minaj wouldn't last. "Make sure you hit him with the prenup," he rapped, "then tell that man to ease up."
Minaj tried to stay out of the drama, telling The New York Times, "You don't ever want to choose sides between people you love. It's ridiculous. I just want it to be over."
Nicki Minaj began beefing with Drake
Drake and Meek Mill eventually made up, collaborating on 2018's "Going Bad." This set Nicki Minaj off, as Billboard reports she and her ex have had a rather tumultuous feud since they broke up in 2016. As recently as January 2020, the former couple got into a shouting match at a store in West Hollywood along with Minaj's husband, Kenneth Petty (via TMZ).
Minaj released "Barbie Goin Bad," in which she freestyled over the "Going Bad" beat. "Imitating Nicki while your ghostwriter dissin' me," she rapped, in a very clear diss to her former friend Drake. On the Rap Radar podcast in December 2019, Drake revealed that this recent feud with Minaj changed their relationship "a lot, probably forever." He added, "You know, like, that situation took its toll."
But fast forward to 2021, and these two friends turned rivals are now friends once again. Drake and Minaj confirmed their friendship status in a May Instagram Live promoting the re-release of Minaj's 2009 mixtape "Beam Me Up Scotty," per Access Hollywood. The two showered each other with compliments. "Listen, on the real s**t: I love you so much, Drake," Minaj gushed. Drake also showered her with praise, saying, "It's just your world. Nobody does s**t better than you." He added, "And you know I'm coming over this weekend too."