If you’re curious why Meek is trending right now it’s because the Internet has put him on a not-to-be-taken-lightly suicide watch after Nicki Minaj went on Ellen and said she’s single and called the Philly rapper “a boy that likes me.” Now in all fairness, those comments sound a bit more harsh than they actually were delivered and there is an explanation, though maybe not a great one, for why Nicki described Meek and their relationship as such: public negativity.
When inquiring about the engagement ring that’s supposedly not an engagement ring, Ellen asked Nicki if she was ready for a proposal from her famous boyfriend and she replied:
“You know, I don’t know. We’re still figuring each other out. And in fact, I don’t even want to say that I’m in a relationship anymore, because I think when people hear that, they go to like the mean place.”
Doing what she does best, Ellen provided comic relief saying she’s coming from a happy place (so spill the tea), and the Young Money star continued:
“You know, I used to be secretive. You guys asked me about that before on my pre-interview. I used to say, ‘I’m not in a relationship,’ even though I was in a 12-year relationship. Now I feel like just going back to that and saying, ‘You know what? I’m single… Now, I don’t really care to say ‘I’m in a relationship’ or ‘I’m engaged’ or whatever. There’s a boy that likes me. That’s all.”
So, you like him too? Or nah?
For the most part, I get what Nicki’s saying. If us common folk can fall prey to Insta-drama when people see a pic with someone one day and draw a crazy conclusion and then see a pic without the person a week later and draws another, I can only imagine the level of ridiculousness when you have 52 million followers. However, calling the person you’re dating just “a boy that likes me” or saying you two are just “two souls going through the universe” when she’s stuffed Meek down our throats for months on end, just isn’t going to cut it. Not for us, because we don’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but likely for Meek.
Despite looking up to Beyonce and Jay Z as a couple, Nicki failed to learn from their example of acting like they didn’t even know the other inhabited the same planet when they first began dating. Instead, Nicki has spoken about Meek every chance she’s gotten and splattered him all over her Instagram, as recent as one week ago mind you. That is not the behavior of a woman who doesn’t really care to say — or show — she’s in a relationship.
The thing about making relationships public, especially on social media, is there are no take-backs. You can’t have “In a relationship with Jason” on your Facebook page today and then remove it tomorrow without more than a few questions, even if you are still in a relationship with Jason. And the same goes for Instagram. If your timeline is full of photos with bae and #RelationshipGoals hashtags, suddenly halting all of that oversharing will raise a few eyebrows and, if you haven’t discussed downplaying your relationship with your partner, one of those eyebrows is going to be theirs.
Nicki is right; the negativity that surrounds relationships these days is not cool. But neither is portraying the person you’re with as some lovesick puppy following you around and showering you with nice things (like multi-carat diamond rings) you can take or leave. And given the rather inglorious year Meek has had between his legal troubles and being sh-tted on by Drake, the last person he needs to be played by is his girlfriend. On national TV. You don’t have to say you’re single to get the public out of your business; all you have to do is stop putting your business on display for the public.
Because Meek is a man, his ego is on the line and the masses are taking no mercy when it comes to throwing shots at him. But really this situation isn’t much different from how we clown women like Emily Bustamente for being with men like Fabolous who still refuse to acknowledge them as their girlfriends, even though they’ve been together for umpteenth years and have reared more than one of their children. There’s a way to go about downplaying your relationship in a way that doesn’t disrespect your union or the person you could maybe one day possibly see yourself marrying. Most times that’s going to have to be done from the jump, and be a joint decision by both parties. Nicki didn’t handle this the right way and now Meek has to pay, publicly.
