Quentin Miller has revealed he was never properly compensated for his work with Drake, despite landing multiple songwriting credits on his triple-platinum album If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late.
Miller made the revelation during an interview with VladTV, explaining his “horrible” publishing deal with Grammy-winning producer/songwriter Tricky Stewart at the time meant he never received a publishing check for his contributions to Drizzy’s 2015 project.
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The Atlanta native was outed as Drake’s “ghostwriter” by Meek Mill during their high-profile feud that summer, with the Philly rapper suggesting Miller penned the OVO hitmaker’s verse on their “R.I.C.O.” collaboration. Funk Flex also played Miller’s alleged reference track for “10 Bands” on Hot 97.
Miller denied the ghoswriting allegations and clarified that he was credited for working on a “few songs” on IYRTITL. However, Meek didn’t take too kindly to his denial and allegedly jumped Miller in a Nike store in Los Angeles.
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“It was really inconsiderate,” Miller said while reflecting on his name being dragged through the mud during Drake and Meek’s beef. “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 added: “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.”
When DJ Vlad quizzed him about his claim, Quentin Miller revealed he was forced to survive on money that was paid to him “under the table.” It wasn’t until almost a decade after signing the contract that he finally managed to extricate himself from his publishing deal with Stewart.
“I never got a single publishing check off any songs,” he added. “I had to feed my family off getting paid under the table in that situation, because Tricky and them wouldn’t let me go. 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.
“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.”
Miller’s comments come after he was thrust into another ghostwriting debate involving a Hip Hop heavyweight. A clip of the WDNG Crshrs MC revealing he has worked with Nas circulated in November, rekindling long-running rumors that the Queensbridge MC doesn’t write all of his own lyrics.
But in video posted on Instagram, Miller — who is credited as a co-writer on Nas’ King’s Disease II track “The Pressure” — angrily set the record straight.
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“OK, so apparently this whole Quentin-worked-with-Nas conversation is going a little more viral than what I thought ’cause now people are reaching out to me and asking me to clear it up,” he said. “I pulled up on Hit-Boy, I’m in the [studio] … I just bounced some ideas, a couple ideas win. That’s it.”
He added: “Writers post their work and talk about their work all the time. You know why? It helps with the business of writing. When people know that you were a part of certain things, it makes people more prone to work with you. It’s kind of part of the job.
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“But it’s not that way with me, because I just so happened to have had a situation with the biggest artist in the world and it turned into a whole fucking ghostwriting scandal. Now anytime people work with me, it’s like I’m supposed to be a ghost. But I’m not a fucking ghost!”
