Back in 2014, Nicki Minaj and her long time boyfriend Safaree Samuels called it quits after being together for eleven years. Samuels, who formerly went by the name SB, was with Minaj for the duration of her rap career and even is credited as an A&R, Composer and Executive Producer on Nicki’s albums according to All Music. However, Safaree was in the background the whole time.
Early on, Nicki Minaj was this generation’s Lil Kim. Minaj’s “slim waist, thick ass” that she raps about on Kanye West‘s ‘Monster’ became eye candy for guys while her aggressive, lyrical, and sexual lyricism displayed her ability to reach the women of the generation.
Since then, Minaj has been on a pretty steady decline. Her pursuit into the pop music realm while it did garner some sales for the 35-year-old, at the same time she lost touch with hip-hop. Still, she continues to blaze features here and there with dope verses on Yo Gotti‘s “Rake it Up,” and Migos Motorsport. However, any music that she’s put out herself has not taken off.
As Nicki Minaj’s beef with Remy Ma started bubbling, Remy dropped a scathing diss track titled “SHEther” — a verse Remy wrote to Nas ‘Ether’ that was widely hailed as the track that would end Nicki Minaj’s reign as Queen of rap. Nicki responded with “No Frauds,” a track that never took off like Nicki expected. “We don’t diss records, we make hit records,” Minaj said after dropping the track. Hip-Hop wasn’t feeling that, and the record never took off despite the Drake and Lil Wayne feature.
Now with Cardi B and Remy being the forefront of the women of hip-hop, Nicki Minaj has gone on a hiatus to work on her next album which she guarantees will be a classic.
As Nicki’s rap career slowly dwindles, Safaree Samuels is coming into the starlight that he hasn’t seen since his days with Nicki. The Queens rapper started his reality tv debut on VH1’s Love and Hip Hop Hollywood and eventually transitioned to Love and Hip Hop New York. It was seen as a way to rebuild his brand as he was no longer wanted to be known as Nicki Minaj’s sidekick and wanted to show the world that he has music too, and its good.
But it wouldn’t be any song Safaree did that got him noticed. Instead, it was leaked nudes that revealed the rapper’s blessing and drove the women of Instagram crazy. In an interview with The Breakfast Club, Safaree tried to stay humble about the pictures and despite the boost it gave him career wise, he says that he wishes the pictures weren’t leaked.
Safaree as an artist celebrated on Instagram as his single charted as high as #30 on the iTunes hip-hop charts.
With still a long way to go, Safaree’s stock is up, while his Ex struggles with a hard decline.
