Nicki Minaj performs live on stage at 02 Arena on October 30, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Jim Dyson/Getty Images)
Nicki Minaj has lashed out at former American Idol judge and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler over remarks he made, which the rapper deemed racially insensitive.
In an interview with MTV, Tyler questioned Minja’s ability as a judge to nurture and get the best of contestants.
“If it was Bob Dylan, Nicki Minaj would have had him sent to the cornfield! Whereas, if it was Bob Dylan with us, we would have brought the best of him out, as we did with Phillip Phillips. Just saying,” said Tyler.
The rapper responded to Tyler’s comments with a series of tweets, calling the statement “racist” and telling the rocker to “go f**k [him]self” in another tweet.
Nick Minaj’s tweet response to Steven Tyler
Tyler also criticized the Minaj and Mariah Carey for their public feud because he felt the two were putting personal matters over their roles as judges on the show.
“I know that they’ve got something going on on the judges’ panel, [and] it shouldn’t be that, it should be just the opposite: They should have something going on, which is called ‘camaraderie’,” said Tyler.
“They should have something going on so thick and beautiful that they can lay it over the new talent that’s trying to birth itself. It needs to be birthed, not judged by ‘entertainment’ factors, it needs to be judged by people that [are] honest, true, that have the ‘it’ factor. Not the ‘it’ factor because they can fight. The f**k is that all about?”
Minaj and Mariah made headlines when they were both recorded on a camera phone in a heated argument behind the scenes of American Idol, an incident that Carey’s husband, Nick Cannon, believes Idol producers were using for publicity.
