Nicki Minaj and Meek Mill feud: Are Twitter beefs and diss tracks toxic marketing tools?
In an ongoing feud, Nicki Minaj accused Meek Mill of physically abusing her when they were together, and Mill responded by bringing up Minaj's brother who recently received a prison sentence of 25 years for allegedly raping a minor.
The relationship between the two rappers has been messy ever since they first got together in 2015. Together they went on tour and even collaborated on 'Buy A Heart' and 'All Eyes on You'. Mill also had a feud with another one of Minaj's exes, Drake, who went on to release multiple diss tracks aimed at Mill.
Following their split, the two took jabs at each other on social media. Rapper Remy Ma, who has had feuds with Minaj since 2007, dropped her diss track 'ShETHER' in 2017 a day after Minaj's 'Make Love', which took shots at Ma. 'ShETHER' referred to the Minaj-Mill relationship as well as things Mill told Ma about Minaj's alleged implants.
Mill followed suit with the album 'Wins & Losses' where he called out Minaj, and then Minaj dropped 'Barbie Dreams' in 2018 where she returned the favor. Mill went on to clear up the feud with Drake and the two released 'Going Bad' in 2018, and Minaj released a freestyle over the song's instrumentals in her 2019 diss track 'Barbie Goin Bad'.
Despite the pair having seemingly moved on, their feud continues. Minaj is with her husband Kenneth 'Zoo' Petty and Mill is expecting a child with his girlfriend Milan Harris. Now, just off the heels of Minaj and Mill trading fresh attacks on Twitter, Mill announced a new song 'Believe' featuring Justin Timberlake.
For a relationship that has been plagued with toxicity and abuse from the beginning, it has also managed to inspire several tracks and albums from Minaj and Mill as well as several other artists — while also boosting their sales for other projects they are actively working on.
Toxic relationships, it would seem, are highly marketable. And if artists can keep the topic going by trading Twitter blows and dropping diss tracks, they can continue to profit off of it for years to come.
Users are already jumping back on the bandwagon, such as this user who tweeted: "Who you supporting tonight? Like for #Meekmill Retweet for #Nicki Minaj."
Others, despite the seriousness of the claims the two are making, call it what it is. "I would like to formally thank Nicki Minaj and Meek Mill for today’s entertainment #2020SoFar," tweeted one user.
Users also called out Minaj for her role in the crimes of her brother and husband, tweeting, "Watching nicki blow up on meek like she aint defend her perv a** brother and get engaged to a registered sex offender like."
But just like with the rest of this feud, fellow artists were quick to jump in and have their name attached to the debacle.
Rapper 600 Breezy said, "Aye Meek for a small fee I kno some n*ggas that’ll make her a widow I’m just the messenger (sic)" in a since-deleted tweet. Despite not being as well known to the larger community previously, 600 Breezy's latest Instagram video, which appears to be a music video featuring the rapper has at least 50,000 views and thousands of comments from Nicki Minaj fans telling him to 'stay in his lane'.
Others made a callback to earlier claims that Mills' career got a boost due to his association with Minaj, tweeting: "@MeekMill you hitting and abusing your own sister & women, stalking @NICKIMINAJ throwing shade cause she living the best life with her new man an u big mad when she finally claps back. Like boy Sit down stfu an BOW DOWN TO THE MF QUEEN @NICKIMINAJ CAUSE SHE MADE YOU. (sic)"
Minaj herself emerged from her hiatus and was recently on Pollstar Live following the latest Twitter feud to talk about her upcoming album, stating that she would be releasing a new promo single this week and soon after, the first single from her new record. A snippet of the single was played at the event.
Amidst a whirlwind of allegations around abuse, stalking, rape and more, it appears that the artists behind the allegations as well as all those who choose to throw their name in the ring stand to benefit quite a bit. Especially so, when it gives their latest work a promotional boost and also gives them fresh material for their next project. After all, who could pass up the opportunity for a bit of free marketing?