Over the years, the world of hip hop has become known almost as much for its couples
and dramatic break-ups as it has the music itself. But who had the messiest and most
tragic splits of all? These are the most devastating breakups in hip hop history.
When you think of Kanye West's relationships,
you probably think about his separation from reality star Kim Kardashian.
Whether you love him or hate him, the singer and hip hop icon has been on the scene for a while,
and his relationship with Kardashian has been one of the most highly publicized in music history.
But it was his breakup with Amber Rose that dominated the headlines a decade ago.
Rose later told the No Jumper podcast that West criticised and shamed her in public
after they went their separate ways in 2010. She added:
"That's what narcissists do, right? So, like you share two years with someone..."
She added:
"Then the person decides that this is not what they want their life to be.
I opted out. I don't want my life to be like that. I'm not that type of person."
Rose went on to claim that West embarked upon a media campaign against her, attacking her image
repeatedly. Indeed, he told The Breakfast Club after their break-up that he needed to take "30
showers" to wash Rose off of him. When asked why she thought he'd say such things, Rose shared:
"I don't know if he says things to make his wife more comfortable."
If there's one family that can't help being the center of attention, it's the Kardashians. And if
you know a little something about hip hop couples, then you'll know that Khloé Kardashian and hip
hop hit-maker French Montana were something of an item in the past. The two were together for about
a year, but eventually called it quits in 2014. While Kardashian's love life has gone on to become
increasingly complicated, there's certainly no hard feelings between her and Montana.
In a sit-down with Haute Living in 2019, Montana revealed that he and Kardashian are always
going to be friends, and that they had a great relationship when they were together. He said:
"There was no bad blood, nobody did something to somebody that we couldn't come back from."
And it appears as though these two can still get together as friends,
because Montana was spotted at a Kardashian birthday bash in 2019.
Some breakups are for the best, leaving both parties far better off than they were before.
But that isn't the case for everyone, and hip hop couple Future and Ciara had one
particularly brutal breakup that clearly took its toll. The pair got engaged back
in the mid-2010s before breaking up soon after. In an appearance on Red
Table Talk in 2019, Ciara revealed just how heartbreaking the separation had been.
"And I'd be, like, crying because I am not in the happiest place,
and it hurts what I'm going through."
In addition to her own heartbreak, Ciara expressed her concern about the couple's son, Future Zahir,
and expressed that she worried about not being able to provide a steady parenting unit for him.
Big Sean and Naya Rivera were practically the king and queen of the mid-2010s hip hop scene. The pair
started dating in April 2013 and announced their engagement in October that same year. They seemed
to be the "it" couple of the time, destined for a storybook romance — but by April 2014 they
had called it quits. Of course, what made their breakup that much more heartbreaking was Rivera's
tragic death in 2020, after which Sean broke his silence about the person he once wanted to spend
his life with. Sean paid tribute to Rivera on Instagram in the wake of her death, writing:
"Thank you for blessing us all with your talent and presence. You are a hero!"
He praised both her resilience and her bravery,
highlighting just how many hurdles Rivera broke down in her career and how she made people,
quote, "feel confident in themselves [...] when they couldn't achieve that on their own." Sean's
tribute to his ex-fiancée concluded by thanking her for teaching him to be "a better person."
While some couples who split can't even be in the same room together, hip hop legend Wiz Khalifa and
his ex-wife, Amber Rose, are still on pretty great terms. Khalifa and Rose didn't have the
smoothest of breakups when they split in 2014, but time seems to have healed those wounds. In a
sit-down with People magazine, Rose expressed how much love she has for her ex, saying:
"Wiz will always be my best friend, forever — we're best friends. It's kind of weird,
because it's like we're almost better divorced, you know?"
For his part, Khalifa expressed a similar sentiment when speaking to Playboy. He said that
while he was sad that his time with Rose came to an end, he was never "depressed" about it,
and was mostly concerned for his son's well-being. Khalifa explained:
"My son was involved, and that hurt me because my main goal is to raise my son how I want.
I didn't know how to deal with it and didn't understand that feeling. A year later,
I'm way smarter and better equipped to deal with it."
Is there a hip hop couple with a more complicated relationship than Drake and
Rihanna? The ultimate on-again, off-again couple have known each other since as early as 2005,
though it wasn't until 2009 when word of the relationship got out. This is when the
duo were spotted hitting it off in New York. At the time, an eyewitness said:
"She was drinking whiskey and apple juice and making out with
him all night. They were really cute together."
Of course, it didn't last. Just a year later, Drake told The New York Times that Rihanna had
used him as a "pawn" and that he felt "terrible" about their relationship. In 2013, he explained in
an interview that he and Rihanna "had [their] moment," but that it was very much over.
Then, two years later, Rihanna denied having ever dated Drake in the first place. Of course,
everyone remembers Drake's passionate speech at the 2016 MTV VMAs, that propped Rihanna up
front and center, but things fizzled once again. In a 2018 interview with Vogue,
Rihanna actually winced when Drake's name came up. Don't expect to hear wedding bells anytime soon.
Marriage can be a fickle thing — divorce, doubly so. For some couples,
divorce is the best path forward for a relationship gone south. For others,
it's a one-sided affair that results in nothing but heartache and confusion.
Hip hop couple Ray J and Princess Love certainly fall into the latter category, and the two
have gone back and forth between divorcing and staying together multiple times over the years.
"Stop. Stop! Bye. Stop. I'm out."
Love reportedly filed for divorce in May 2020,
but requested to have the case dismissed in court shortly after,
leading many to presume that the couple had reconciled. No such luck, however, because J
filed his own papers in September 2020, proving that the couple really were on rocky footing.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight about his decision,
J revealed that he hadn't "had a chance to sit back and think
about it," possibly explaining their on-again, off-again dynamic. He said:
"I want to make sure everybody is happy, that everybody enjoys life."
"You know, sometimes it's the best thing to do."
J added that, in his words,
he "went to God" before making the final decision to go through with the divorce.
The couple has gone on to reconcile and Ray J has filed for divorce once again in October 2021.
Nicki Minaj has made it known during her time in the hip hop scene that she marches to the beat
of her own drum, and nothing encapsulates that better than the time she split from Meek Mill
after dating him for two years. The two began dating shortly after Minaj’s 2014 breakup from
Safaree Samuels, but called it quits in a pretty fiery way. Since then, they've both taken to
social media to duke it out, with Minaj alleging that Mill beats women, and Mill accusing Minaj of
taking her brother's side while he was facing accusations of sexual assault against a child.
And while their social media war was bad, taking their frustrations to their music proved to
be a whole new development for the ex-couple. Mill even let it slip to fans that his album,
Wins & Losses, would "address everything" that went down with Minaj. Cut to January 2020,
almost four years after they called it quits, and Minaj and Mill went viral on social
media for getting into a screaming match at a store in West Hollywood. The following month,
the exes took their war back to Twitter and had at each other yet again — so
it's safe to say that these two aren't going to be patching things up anytime soon.
"Okay, what is my birthday?"
"Come on now, that's easy. That’s easy."
Music fans were pretty surprised when hip hop couple Saweetie and Quavo
split up after three years of dating, but that didn't stop some less-than-flattering news from
coming out about their dynamic. For example, a video from 2020 came to light after their
breakup showing a physical altercation between the two that had taken place
in an elevator. Quavo maintained that he never physically hurt Saweetie during the encounter,
and the exes later put out a statement saying that they had moved on from the matter.
Saweetie hit the headlines yet again when, five months after they initially split up,
rumors of a reconciliation between her and Quavo began to circulate. While stories were gaining
traction about the exes "quietly" spending time together, Saweetie took to Twitter to set the
record straight. Alongside an article suggesting she and her ex had reconciled, Saweetie tweeted:
"Pinocchio ass article."
Apparently, when Saweetie and Quavo initially broke up,
everyone should have believed the first tweet she posted. It read:
"I'm single. I've endured too much betrayal and hurt behind
the scenes for a false narrative to be circulating that degrades my character."
Janet Jackson dominated '80s and '90s hip hop and R&B. A member of the Jackson family who took the
hip hop world by storm, Jackson was a trailblazer in her own right, and she continues to make music
to this day. But she was also well known for her relationship with producer Jermaine Dupri back in
the early 2000s, as the couple spent nearly a decade together before calling it quits.
So what ultimately made this long-lasting couple call it a day on their relationship?
Dupri talked about their time together on rapper T.I.'s podcast,
expediTIously, explaining that geography played a factor in their breakup. He said:
"She wasn't willing to move to Atlanta. She was willing to come out here for a couple of weeks.
But living in Atlanta, for her, just didn't really seem like L.A."
However, there may have been more to the story, as sources told Us Weekly at the time that the
two had mixed "business" and "pleasure" — in the sense that Dupri had produced tracks on Jackson's
albums. Jackson, apparently, felt that these two worlds should be kept strictly separate.
Rewind to 2005, when Nas was one of the most prominent rappers in the industry.
He married singer Kelis that same year, and, given how their music complemented the other,
they quickly became hip hop royalty in the public eye. But what many saw as a match
made in musical heaven was, in fact, far from perfect. Kelis claimed that her marriage to Nas
was fraught with tension, and she and her husband argued often. Nas would reportedly
get drunk before becoming violent toward Kelis. She once told Hollywood Unlocked:
"Literally, we would have the worst night
ever and we would wake up the next day, and it's like it never happened."
The two eventually split up after five years that Kelis described as "tumultuous and toxic,"
claiming she endured both physical and emotional abuse as a result. Explaining how she had "edited"
herself to fit into the role in her marriage, Kelis said that she woke up one morning and said:
"Not today."
Meanwhile, Nas has denied Kelis' allegations, saying:
"Everything with her is a plot and a scheme. Has no merit. No foundation."
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse,
you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233.
You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.