Nicki Minaj's Ex Is Throwing Anti-Feminist Shade

Anyone who has listened to Nicki Minaj's The Pinkprint by this point has got a good idea of what went down between Minaj and her ex, Safaree Samuels leading up to their split. The rapper got incredibly candid and incredibly personal about her relationship issues on the album, between songs like "Bed of Lies" and "Pills N Potions," but apparently that's only one half of the story. On Tuesday, Samuels discussed the break up with Minaj in order to give his opinion on what happened between them, and his opinion is the most anti-feminist thing I've heard all day. In fact, if this is the reason he's giving for why they're no longer together, then their break up is the best thing that happened to both of them.

"I walked away. I'm not going to say I broke up, but I'm the one who walked away. I packed up my stuff and I left. I just got to the point where the respect wasn't there," said Samuels. "Everyone around her works for her, you know? So it got to the point where it was like, I'm your man. I'm who you go to sleep with every night. I'm who you wake up with every morning. And it got to the point where I was being treated like an employee, instead of like her man."

A relationship has to be made up of two equals in order for it to work. That's just a fact. Otherwise, one half might have to grapple with feelings of inadequacy when they compare themselves to their more successful, confident, or fulfilled partner. Call me judgmental, but, from Samuels' comments, that seems to be exactly what happened between himself and Minaj. The rapper has been candid in interviews and specials before about how she is a bossy perfectionist, and how exhausting she finds it that these traits are considered negative in a woman and positive in a man. So, it's not as though I'm saying I don't believe Samuels when he said that Minaj treated him more like an employee than he was comfortable with.

But it's there that he loses me. What exactly does it mean that Minaj didn't "[treat him] like her man?" By his own assertion, he is the one she went to sleep with every night, the one she woke up with every morning, and, according to her, the one she loved. At what point did any of that stop falling under the heading of being treated "like her man?" The fact that Samuels seems to be complaining that Minaj was too bossy, and in light of Minaj's own take on their relationship from The Pinkprint, it seems more likely that it was resentment that drove a wedge between them rather than a lack of respect.

I don't believe that Minaj was completely blameless in the split. Break ups have an equal chance of being somehow caused by both people in the relationship as they do of being a simple case of one doing wrong by the other. However, the fact that Samuels would blame the break up on Minaj's status as a strong woman with a thriving career who is bossy, ambitious, and can handle her own business just strikes the wrong tone with me. I can accept a lack of respect. I can accept Minaj being too busy to spend time with him. I can even accept Twitter feuds and screaming arguments leading up to the split.

But I cannot accept that a woman's work ethic should be a contributing factor in the death of her relationship, because it just reinforces the stereotype that a woman can't have a career and a romantic life. It reinforces the stereotype that women have to choose between being fulfilled at work and being fulfilled at home. It reinforces the stereotype that men don't want women who know what they want, that men want women who want them. It's 2015, guys. Let's get real.

Check out the full interview below.

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