After nearly two years of dating, Nicki Minaj and Meek Mill have broken up as she confirmed today via Twitter, declaring herself officially “single.” Let’s take a look back at how it all started and fell apart.
2010: Meek spends the year thirsting after Nicki on Twitter.
August 2013: An Instagram photo confirms the two rappers finally end up in the studio together, likely to collaborate on Meek’s Dreamchasers 3 mixtape.
December 2014: Nicki Minaj visits Power 106 to promote The Pinkprint (on which Meek Mill guest appears on two tracks) and when asked by host Big Boy if the two rappers are dating, Nicki is (or acts) visibly shocked and vehemently denies it: “We’re friends.”
Shortly after, she speaks to Power 105.1’s Angie Martinez, confirming her breakup with boyfriend of 12 years, Safaree “ScaffBeezy” Samuels, and when asked about Meek Mill again, she still remains PC: “I think he’s amazing. I love what he represents for dudes that think like him and act like him and live like him.”
January 2015: The two post a selfie together on Instagram and though it’s not intimate or revealing, another photo later surfaces of Meek’s Maybach Music crew in the club and, sure enough, the rappers are hugged up.
February 2015: A kiss! Finally! Granted, it’s on the cheek, but the photo signifies more than just a friendship.
April 2015: After weeks of making public displays of affection on social media, on stage during shows, and in interviews, the couple sparks rumors of an engagement when Nicki shares with her followers a picture of a ring that a jeweler tells E! “looks like a 15-carat fancy yellow heart modified brilliant cut diamond mounted in platinum with a double halo of white pavé diamonds.”
May 26, 2015: Despite the tease, Meek insists the couple is not engaged in an interview with Fader, saying of their relationship: “It’s definitely real, but it ain’t really time to get married yet. We’re still learning each other, feeling each other out.”
May 28, 2015: Nicki tweets this, signaling she’s possibly miffed with her boyfriend’s words.
May 31, 2015: Nicki shares two photos on Instagram quoting lyrics from Beyonce’s “Best Thing I Never Had,” and rumors begin to swirl that there’s trouble in paradise.
June 2015: Things seem to be back on track, however, once Nicki’s ex Samuels releases a song detailing their former relationship. In a Twitter spiel, she wishes him the best while simultaneously declaring her love for Meek.
October 2015: The couple shows off in their first photoshoot together for GQ’s October 2015 issue.
December 2015: Nicki receives yet another diamond ring from Meek, but this one is a birthday gift.
April 2016: In her cover story and interview for Nylon, Nicki follows in Meek’s previous footsteps and denies that the couple is engaged, saying:
“He said that my third ring would be my engagement ring. But sometimes he calls me his fiancée, and I’m always trying to stop him, like, ‘Nope! I ain’t got that third ring yet!’ We’re just taking it one step at a time. And, you know, if that happens, if I get married, then I’ll have a child, and that’ll be fun, because I can’t wait to hold my baby.”
She later defended her relationship to talk show host Ellen Degeneres, explaining that putting it in the public eye only incurs more negative commentary. She said:
“I don’t even want to say I’m in a relationship anymore because I think when people hear that they go to, like, the mean place. I used to say I wasn’t in a relationship even though I was in a 12-year relationship and now, I feel like going back to that and saying I’m single… For instance, Valentine’s Day passed and I didn’t put up my Valentine’s Day gift on Instagram. People said, ‘They’re not together.’ We were getting anonymous messages saying, ‘She wasn’t with him. She was crying all day.’ They put up all these things. Meanwhile, we were really in bed all day on Valentine’s Day.”
May 2016: After celebrating Meek’s birthday and then being hit with a lawsuit from Samuels (who alleged he was owed unpaid royalties), Nicki took to Twitter to ask her ex to leave them alone.
September 2016: Meek trolls his followers with a photoshopped image of a pregnant Nicki Minaj.
Nicki doesn’t appear to be laughing though. Later that month, she tweets:
October 2016: Meek Mill deletes his Instagram account after lashing out in a comment that many believed to be directed towards Nicki (and that the internet was able to snag a shot of before it disappeared entirely). It read: “When it’s going down, these niggas nowhere to be found. Most of these niggas be so temporary. Bitches be so temporary.”
December 2016: Fans of the couple notice that the two have stopped following each other on Instagram. Meek furthers the rumors of a breakup when he posts a now-deleted photo of a woman’s body in lacy lingerie. Appearing blasé, he first captions it “Sitting back like…,” before editing it to add “Just friends.”
January 2017: Nicki confirms what’s seemed like a long time coming.
Meek responded somewhat childishly by posting a now-deleted photo to Instagram of the Giuseppe Zanotti wedge-sneakers Nicki and Ciara wore in the music video for their 2013 collaboration “I’m Out.” He captioned it: “If you walk out don’t wear these, they wack.”
Take a look back at their happier times as a couple.