Baller Alert Entertainment & Lifestyle
In an interview with Van Lathan on his “Red Pill Podcast,” former “Love and Hip Hop: Hollywood” star Nia Riley opened up about her altercation with Soulja Boy, dealing with the backlash from social media, her ex’s fling with Blac Chyna and more.
The year started off strong for rapper and beatmaker Soulja Boy Tellem, as he recently made a major comeback launching his entrepreneurial foundation in the tech industry. In fact, Big Draco was set to host BET’s Social Awards, but things took a turn for the worse when a clip of an altercation with his ex Nia Riley hit the internet. The clip was from the reality show “Marriage Bootcamp: Hip Hop Edition,” which features several celebrity couples that participate in numerous activities in an attempt to work out their troubled relationships together. Nia and Soulja joined other celeb couples in a house that was monitored daily by producers.
However, one night quickly escalated into an abusive altercation between the former couple. In the video, viewers can see Soulja and Nia having a verbal disagreement that becomes physical fast. In the clip, while other cast members were sleeping, Soulja accused Nia of “embarrassing him on TV.” As Nia ordered Soulja to stop talking, he then jumped on top of her while she was laying bed and tried to grab her phone. Nia then started screaming and kicking to get the rapper off of her yelling, “Get out! Get the f**k off of me!” After hearing Nia’s cries, the other cast members ran in to see if Nia was okay.
After the incident went viral, the reality star sat down for an in-depth interview with Van Lathan, where she kicked off the convo by saying that reality TV has never truly portrayed her and Soulja’s relationship accurately. The two have known each other for more than a decade but only dated for three to four years. She said they met when she was around 17.
“I do know that I wasn’t completely myself on the show…like as far as being open with a lot of things. Only because I felt like at that time, in that relationship, I like I kinda had to like hide a lot of things pretty much. [Soulja Boy] made it blatant, like obviously, like he’s disrespectful. And I felt like it wasn’t, at the time, it wasn’t as bad until it was time to film. Then sh*t just went way south, and I just never understood that.”
Riley also discussed Soulja’s rise to fame and how her once innocent relationship with the rapper became too much after being tainted with lies, cheating, and abuse. “I feel like I woke up one day and I was over the shit, it got to that point…and I feel like there were other things that came into play that didn’t make him being with other women as serious. You know I took being disrespected directly from that person more serious than you cheating on me.” Riley wouldn’t discuss the details of the first time Soulja abused her but said she was shocked; she assured Lathan that her daughter was never a witness to the abuse. She said it wasn’t the era of Soulja Boy’s “Crank Dat” era but after appearing on “Love and Hip Hop,” is when she saw a swift change in his character, saying everything became “for show.”
“Initially with doing ‘Love and Hip Hop,’ that was something, why I agreed to do the show too, cause I’m like I think people should see another side of him. You know what I mean, like he’s not a dummy. He’s very smart. People don’t even know how smart he is. So it was just like, certain things I was just like I think like you should show the world this….so me going into doing Love and Hip Hop, like there’s no way, like I didn’t think for one second that would be an issue. Ever.”
When it came to Soulja’s new flings, like #BlacChyna, Riley said she feels nothing. When asked if she thought the relationship was real, she responded: “I don’t know.” Lathan asked, “You don’t have any issues with Blac Chyna?” Riley responded “For what? Like honestly, for what?” Riley also felt “that to a certain extent,” Soulja was using Chyna to get back at her. “The least you could have done was wait until the show was done airing to do all the bullshit you’re doing right now. That’s the least you could have done.” Riley did admit that while she joined the Marriage Bootcamp cast for a check, the therapy may have helped in some ways. In particular, Riley said it helped her with realizing her unaffectionate ways were a result of being raped. “When I lost my virginity I was raped. So my therapist was Dr. V, and she feels like a lot of that came from that situation,” Riley said before she opened up about coping with the negativity of social media.
“I didn’t want to know other people’s opinions. People are just, they’re harsh either way. You know, a lot of people said ‘oh you’re dramatic,’ and I’m just like I’ve never said anything before. How am I being dramatic? You’ve never seen me be dramatic about anything. I don’t talk about my business; I don’t really put anything personal on my Instagram. I barely even post my own daughter, because people and their negative opinions. All the time. Like, it’s draining. And especially with this, I feel like it’s a really sensitive subject and people are still making light of it. Like, ‘oh, he only grabbed your foot, ‘oh he was reaching for your phone.’ He wasn’t thinking about that f*cking phone. At all.”
As she continued, Riley said the one thing she ever wanted from Soulja was a public apology, the same way he publicly embarrassed her. “I feel like he should have said something…On Marriage Bootcamp that was literally one of our issues that I brought up. All the times that you’ve embarrassed me on the show, on the internet whatever, you’ve never publicly apologized to me for anything ever. Then this happens and [Soulja] still can’t stick up for me in certain situations.” She continued, “The least you could do is be like ‘I was wrong,’ like what am I getting bashed for? I didn’t do anything, you ran over to me… It doesn’t even have to be a long PSA. Just like you know what ‘I was wrong in that situation, and I want to apologize because that ended up on TV. Period, that’s all you got to say. You don’t have to text me; I’m used to that.”
When asked why she’s stayed for so long, she said she wanted to support Soulja through his own struggles, but she has asked him several times to get help. In the end, Riley said seeing Soulja again “isn’t in her future.” “I tried one more time, and we failed.”
