What a time to be alive. Ciara and Future’s ongoing legal battle has taken a turn for the homicidal. According to newly filed documents in her defamation lawsuit, Ciara is claiming that her ex has made murder threats against her current fiancé, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson.
The R&B chanteuse specifically points to the rapper’s rhymes on his song “Juice,” which includes the lyrics, “Tryna fuck my baby mama, dog what’s up with you? / You gon’ make me get that heat, I’m pulling up on you.” She also cites a recent Instagram post of his—now deleted—featuring two football emojis with guns pointing at them. Following reports of Ciara’s latest filing, Future took to Twitter Tuesday afternoon with a vague retort: “Wish everyone could move on like me...that’s my only wish.”
The rapper’s wish came true a lot quicker than he probably expected, as news leaked that Ciara and Wilson are planning to tie the knot this Wednesday, July 6.
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To trace these ex-lovers from marriage to murder, we have to go way back in time—three years. Once upon a time—2013—Ciara and Future were hip-hop’s It Couple. The rapper and singer titillated fans with relationship rumors for months, before they finally came out as cuffed. They even recorded a duet, “Body Party.” Once they threw this party for each other’s bodies, they decided to take it to the next level. With no need to squabble over who would take the other’s last name, Future popped the question and Ciara said yes. A few months later, the “Goodies” mastermind was showing off her baby bump on The View.
Unfortunately, it was only a couple more months—and one ill-fated Brides magazine cover—before their pre-matrimonial bliss hit a serious speed-bump. In keeping with the time-honored tradition of men sleeping with conveniently located women, Future allegedly cheated with his wardrobe consultant, Tyrina Lee. The rapper’s decision to invite another woman to his body party resulted in a broken engagement, and a whole lot of broken hearts.
In July 2015, Ciara and Russell Wilson went public with their new relationship. The alarmingly wholesome couple took amorous intensity to a whole new level, pledging not to sleep with one another until they were married. While the entertainment industry has had its share of fair weather virgins, from Nick Jonas to Britney Spears, Ciara and Wilson actually seemed resolute. Cleverly, the couple decided not to put too much pressure on their faith-based abstinence plan, announcing engagement plans after less than two years of dating.
After Future got outmaneuvered by the quarterback and his 16-carat commitment, the rapper turned to the petty playbook. Contradicting reports of infidelity, Future gave an interview insisting that he “called [the engagement] off way before any cheating rumors came out.” He added that he let rumors fly long after the split because he “felt embarrassed for her.” When asked about Wilson and Ciara’s old school (old testament?) approach, Future replied, “God told me something else. He ain’t tell me to wait. I guarantee you that. We prayed afterwards though. After we did it, we prayed. That’s a true story.”
Naturally, Ciara had a few choice words regarding her ex’s un-Christian comments, tweeting, “Some Person Is So Dishonest and Ignorant That They Don’t Deserve A Response.” Unfortunately, the disrespect just kept coming. The rapper sat down with The Breakfast Club to publicly shame his baby mama for letting Russell Wilson spend time with Future Jr., complaining, “Of course I wouldn’t want someone pushing my son. Like, that’s the number one rule… You know this dude for a few months and you’re bringing him around your kid? Who does that? Nobody does that.” The rapper’s insistence on berating his ex over her new relationship revealed a fundamental disrespect for the woman who gave birth to his son—not to mention the iconic banger “1, 2 Step.”
Of course, a round of unwarranted mudslinging wouldn’t be complete without some gendered slurs. Future went there with his next diss, a Twitter rant labelling Ciara a “bitch” with “control problems,” alleging, “I gotta go through lawyers to see babyfuture…the f--kery for 15k a month.” A Ciara source quickly disputed the rapper’s claims, insisting that the singer has never prevented Future from seeing his son, and “that Future uses the situation to promote his music by staying in the press using her name.”
Faster than he could say “someone hacked my Twitter,” Future was served with a $15 million defamation suit, courtesy of the R&B kween. Adding insult to injury, Future countersued, claiming that Ciara didn’t have a high enough public profile to be defamed and referring to her last album as a “flop.” After a judge awarded the parents joint custody in May, Future had the good sense to drop his case.
Unfortunately, Future’s fans are even pettier than their idol. For a select group of hip-hop bros, Ciara is exactly the type of baby mama that needs to be taken to task. The singer reeks of independence, from her decision to keep dating after her first engagement failed, to her audacious request for sole custody. That’s that shit they don’t like. When the May joint custody verdict came in, Twitter trolls heralded the decision as a major blow to Ciara, and karmic comeuppance for trying to bring another man into her baby’s life. In certain DS2-blasting corners of the internet, the R&B singer has been cast as a villain. In addition to the crime of replacing Future, she’s charged with bad-mouthing her baby daddy and trying to take the successful rapper for all he’s worth.
Of course, there’s a gendered double standard at play here. Future probably cheated on his fiancé, and yet she’s the one who’s out of line… for dating a new guy after they split up. Meanwhile, the rapper has been far from celibate. Future called his baby mama a “bitch” in the press and yet, to hear Twitter bros tell it, Ciara’s scheming merits all sorts of pejoratives. This is more than just hypocrisy—it’s the eternal urge to shame female sexuality and police single mothers, amplified by social media. Unfortunately for Ciara and also everyone, internet misogyny, much like this never-ending legal battle, isn’t going anywhere.
