How Quentin Miller Lost Drake vs Meek Mill

Where is Quentin Miller now, 8 years after Drake vs Meek Mill? Fans of both Drake and Meek remember 2015 like it was yesterday.

But Quentin Miller certainly wants to forget.

A Dashed Big Break

Quentin Miller recently revealed that he was never compensated for writing several parts of Drake’s 2015 album If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late.

During a DJ Vlad interview, Miller broke down his publishing deal with famed producer Tricky Stewart. He explained that the terms of the contract prevented him from being paid directly for his contributions to the double platinum album.

Back in 2015, Miller was suddenly thrown into the spotlight after Meek Mill exposed his role in IYRTITL. That summer, Drake and Meek publicly came to blows over accusations of ghostwriting. Initially, Meek only mentioned Quentin’s alleged role in writing Drake’s verse on ‘R.I.C.O’, but this soon snowballed into something far worse when Funk Flex played the reference track for ’10 Bands’ on Hot 97. In a matter of days, Drake’s artistry was called into question and Quentin Miller’s name was plastered all over social media.

Millers subsequently denied the ghostwriting allegations but did admit to having credits on IYRTITL. Unfortunately for him, Meek took this denial as disrespect and allegedly had the Atlanta native brutally attacked at a Los Angeles Nike store.

“I was really excited I thought I was gonna have a Drake feature. cause at the time Drake was just doing random features for upcoming artists, I thought I was gonna be one of those lucky artists,” he explained on how the two initially connected.

Everything Changes

Miller went on to confirm he co-wrote ‘Used To’, ’10 Bands’, ‘Legend’, ‘6 Man’ and ‘Blessed’. All of which are highly streamed and praised records from that era of Drake’s career. Another illuminating piece of information from the recent interviews is that Meek Mill apparently offered Quentin $15,000 to work with him, which the songwriter declined. Almost immediately after, Meek goes public with ghostwriting accusations on Twitter.

“Stop comparing drake to me too… He dont write his own raps! That’s why he ain’t tweet me album because we found out!” Meek typed. He continued, “The whole game know forreal they scared to tell the truth! I can’t wait to these guys and sit back and act like they don’t know!”

For Drake and Meek, this was the start of a nasty brawl and a series of back-and-forth diss tracks. For Quentin Miller, this nearly ended his career.

“Next thing you know he puts it all out there and that just changed everything. It changed my relationship with Drake[…] it changed my relationship with everybody. It was just bad.” He told Vlad.

Quentin went on to detail the immediate fallout from the ghostwriting claims and how it caused some friction between him and Drake. Suddenly, every bar the Toronto artist ever rapped was being put into question. Songs oftentimes have multiple writer credits, but in hip-hop, the subject of songwriting is a little more sensitive. As reference tracks from IYRTITL began leaking all over the internet, the narrative that Quentin was responsible for Drake’s career became more and more prevalent. This ultimately culminated in Funk Flex playing the reference track for 10 bands live on radio.

Financial Woes

“You got Funk Master Flex playing your songs. And you wanna be happy about it, but at the same time it’s destroying your whole situation.” He told Vlad “people know your name now. As an artist, you want that. But you don’t want it like this.”

As the interview pressed on, Quentin’s story became even more tragic. According to him, he never even received a check from co-writing several Drake songs. The 33-year-old primarily blames a bad contract he signed with Tricky Stewart, but it’s clear hard feelings are still held for several people involved.

“It’s like I don’t matter. Maybe ’cause I was a writer, I don’t know. Even with [DJ] Drama and them, just throwing my whole life on the back burner just to get at a n-gga. But what about me taking care of my family?” He asked. “I’m working with a n-gga that literally is about to change my life, even though I was in my horrible, horrible, horrible publishing situation with Tricky so I never got a publishing check off of any Drake songs.”

Vlad proceeded to ask how he managed to support himself despite difficulties with his contract, and Miller explained he took money under the table. It was only recently in 2020 that Tricky released him from his contractual obligations.

“I didn’t get out that deal ’til 2019, 2020; I signed [it in] 2011. I had to let go of a lot of shit just to get out.” He divulged.

Finding The Bright Side

“Even while I was in it, I never got a publishing check or nothing. I was just grinding, bro. I was grinding it out just hoping that one day that one song or working with that one artist is gonna change something — and that was the Drake thing! But it just didn’t change anything”

What began as a fresh new opportunity for a clearly talented writer, spiraled into a series of drama and pointed fingers. Luckily for Quentin, he’s beginning to get more work in the industry following the Drake situation. Miller is credited as a co-writer on the Nas album Kings Disease II. In addition to this, he’s recently composed music for Dreezy, Big Sean, and Gucci Mane.

Dreema Carrington