INDIO, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 16: Moneybagg Yo attends the 2023 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival | YouTube Shorts Content Studio at Empire Polo Club on April 16, 2023 in Indio, California. (Photo by Irvin Rivera/Getty Images for YouTube)
Moneybagg Yo is in his “strong man,” healing father, committed boyfriend era after back-to-back deaths in his life and dealing with the aftermath of cheating on Ari Fletcher.
The Memphis rapper recently spoke to Angie Martinez about parenting after the 2022 murder of his first co-parent. They shared three children, ages 9-13, who now live with him full-time.
Hours before she was killed in their hometown, Moneybagg Yo says she was committed to escaping the street life and accepting his assistance in relocating to Miami. The phone call came in while he was recording in the studio–at “the peak” of his career. He says he “instantly broke down.” He first felt disbelief, then anger at her before releasing all he felt in tears and delivering the news to his eldest daughter via phone.
“It’s hard to talk about right now, but I’m strong, I’m a man. I’m dealing with it, and I’m getting through it,” he said on Angie’s In Real Life podcast. “The oldest one she understand more than the other ones, so she taking it way harder. She walked up to me like…’dad I just want to talk to you, I want to do therapy, I need therapy. Like she’s aware enough to know that.”
To work through his grief and manage his children’s coping needs, Moneybagg leans on his support system.
“It’s a tough situation, I’m just staying strong. I’m just happy to have a great support system. The support system that I got, that just keep me motivated. The girl, my mama, just friends, friends of the family.” He added, “It’s super hard. That’s why I said I’m in this strong phase, that’s why I say I want to come back and I’m talking now. At first I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t even do this right now.”
About 15:30 minutes into the published interview, the rapper admits that his voice was trembling. A few minutes later, he shares how he’s overcoming the trauma.
“Like you said, you gotta let it out, you gotta cry. I done cried in the shower, cry in the shower a lot. Let it out, let the steam out. Feel good about it after that. Record songs, try to stay busy as possible and really stay focus. But just looking at my kids, that’s what makes it harder. Looking at my kids make it way worse.”
Moneybagg Yo also prays–and it’s a practice he takes seriously. He converted to Muslim in 2018-2019.
“God really will test your patience. He really will test your patience. You gotta have patience, like that’s the key, and once I locked on to that, I found out about that. It’s like nothing can stop me now, I don’t rush nothing no more. I let time do everything.”
Moneybagg started his 2022 by renegotiating his contract with Interscope Records. On the same day he was purchasing a Rolls Royce, he got a phone call about the death of a close friend. Three months later, in March, his children’s mother died. Then, another close friend got caught up with the law–though things are now “looking good,” the rapper said.
And seven months ago, Moneybagg almost lost his girlfriend Ari after making the “poor decision” of cheating on her.
“We ain’t got [an open relationship] going, but I made mistakes. I made poor decisions, and that’s why I rock with her so tough, like she helping me through this situation. I was just being a n***a that come from Memphis, my environment, that’s what I was used to. I had never been in no real relationship before.”
He admitted that Ari didn’t “take it well.” He also hinted that the person he was unfaithful with tried to call Ari to spill “everything,” making things worse. Moneybagg Yo says he “kept it G,” admitted his indiscretion, and apologized.
“I really come from a pure place when I say that. I apologized and I want to work through it and get through it. And she with it and she helping me…work through it. That’s why I rock with her so tough cause it’s like ‘okay I get it, I understand you. Don’t let it happen again, don’t take me through there’…once I broke it all the way down to her she understood me fully.”
A situation for convenience wasn’t worth losing Ari, Moneybagg said, admitting that he isn’t perfect, just human.
“We healing right now, we moving forward,” he said. As far as trust goes, he says, “It’s hard, I know she don’t 100% trust me, but it is what it is. I made that bed, I got to lay in it. I take full accountability, I’m a man before anything. We working towards it, I can’t do anything but show her. Show her, keeping showing her, show and prove, make her feel safe and wanted and let her know that I’m here. You ain’t gon get that again.”
Marriage isn’t in the near future for the healing pair, Moneybagg Yo said, clarifying that the large diamond ring she wears was a “just because” gift. He also addressed their miscarriage and how he rehashed the experience in a forthcoming song.
“I’m opening up about the situation, this situation like her losing the baby and all that was kinda breaking our bond at one point,” he said. “It’s difficult. She feels like I wasn’t there for her how I should’ve been.”
Meanwhile, Ari hasn’t publicly responded to the interview. However, she recently tweeted about the cruelty of the internet.
