Nick Cannon Reaction To Mariah Carey & Nicki Minaj Feud On American Idol
Yesterday, TMZ.com excitedly released video of Nicki Minaj cursing out Mariah Carey in response to, apparently, Carey being an attention-seeking diva who’s been pulling focus since the first seconds of the first audition when sources said she would “talk over” Minaj insistently to where the women would end up screaming to be heard.
TMZ reports today, of this week’s altercation, Carey started the whole thing by “calling the rapper a ‘b**ch’ multiple times… according to sources close to Minaj.” Moreover, Carey is “constantly praising herself instead of focusing her energy on critiquing the contestants.”A source says: “[Mariah] keeps bringing up how many records she’s sold, name dropping people she’s worked with, how many tours she’s done, and how many Grammys or awards she’s won … Nicki is tired of it.”
The video of Minaj was mostly inaudible but transcribed as follows.
Nicki: ”Get this s**t in self control. Get in control. Get in control.”
Randy: ”Settle down, settle down.”
Nicki: ”Don’t lose your head. Don’t lose your head (inaudible). Don’t tell me I’m a gangster.”
Nicki: ”(inaudible) every 5 minutes. So every time you patronize me, I’m-ma take it back, and if you’ve got a f**king problem, handle it.”
Nicki: ”I told them I’m not f**kin’ putting up with her f**king highness over there. Figure it the f**k out. Figure it out.”
Mariah: ”Oh why, WHYYYY do I have a three year old sitting around me?”
Nicki: ”I’m not gonna sit here every f**king minute to have you come down and harass me every minute every day.”
Mariah: ”I can’t see my kids, because you decided to act like a little crazy b**ch and go all around the stage.”
It’s pretty much widely agreed that, while the very early drama was staged for attention, this is getting aggressive to the point auditions are being called off which is costing money. At which point it stops being a publicity stunt and just becomes problematic. And Minaj has apparently indirectly threatened to harm Carey (which production denies in a statement), which starts to get legally complicated when the women need to sit together for months on end.
Anyway, Carey is clearly instigating some of this and she’s responding in kind when attacked by Minaj.
Which, says Carey’s husband Nick Cannon who spoke to Access Hollywood, is dragging the show down. Cannon seems to conjecture producers are either starting, encouraging, or enabling bad behavior: “I’m kind of disappointed in Fox and everything, because they’re taking away from the quality of Idol. My wife is the strongest and the classiest woman I’ve ever met. You watch the video and she maintains her composure… I don’t think she’s moved by the theatrics and the pageantry of it all. She signed up for a job to help young people with their dreams. This is like a sidebar. I hope that’s not what this show becomes about – the cat fights. Honestly I believe the show is solely about a singing competition, that’s why America loves these shows… to make it about something that it is not, kind of shows that the producers and the network are losing their foot[ing].”
It’s a theory with which Minaj appears to agree, according to TMZ today. It’s started as a set-up that got out of hand. Minaj reportedly feels she’s being provoked and set up for conflict to boost viewer numbers. To which, next time, she’s going to respond by walking away.
Production sources insist today, though, they were genuinely taken aback by this week’s attacks by irascible Minaj (and Carey). And they’d rather it not happen again. But they’re still not copping to setting up or instigating the feuds for ratings.