Nicki Minaj Fires Back At Funkmaster Flex In Hot 97 Interview

Idolator Staff | June 4, 2012 9:43 pm

Capping a day of finger-pointing in the wake of Nicki’s Minaj‘s canceled Summer Jam gig, the Harajuku Barbie called in to Funkmaster Flex‘s show on New York radio station Hot 97 to hash it out on the air in an unusual meeting of two of hip-hop’s most out-sized personalities. (Not on the air was Hot 97 DJ Peter Rosenberg, who sparked the feud by trashing Minaj’s “Starships” on the Summer Jam stage). Tempers flared. Apologies were sought. Did Nicki exact her (or Roman’s) revenge? Read her comments, and hear the full interview, below.

The discussion unfolded on the air after Flex and Minaj had argued off-air, and tension hung over the entire program. Flex at one point acknowledged that Rosenberg, a rising star in his own right as host of MTV’s Hip-Hop Squares, could have picked a better venue to air his opinions. But Minaj wasn’t hearing any such back-pedaling.

“It’s not about his opinion, because I have opinions about DJs on Hot 97 and I have opinions on Hot 97,” she told Flex. “But when it’s about us uniting people [on] your show, I wouldn’t dare come on your stage and say something negative about Hot 97, leading up to that concert.”

Earlier, Minaj suggested that the Rosenberg’s criticism was particular unwarranted given that she had helped promote the concert by posting streaming links on her website (at the station’s request). “My fans at Summer Jam didn’t appreciate his comments, nor did my fans who were watching the livestream appreciate his comments,” she said. “This is streaming to the world. Nicki Minaj opened up that stream to show to kids in London and Paris… that stream was hosted on my website and those requests came from your station, I posted the links.”

Flex, for his part, said Minaj reacted too harshly, and shouldn’t have listened to her label boss, Lil Wayne, who was the first to say that his Young Money crew — including Minaj — should pull out of the concert. But Minaj said she would never contradict Wayne’s direction. “Before I had New York radio, I had Wayne,” she shot back. “I will never go against Wayne. I can’t believe after all these years he’s still teaching me. After a man goes on stage and disrespects me and tries to rile people up, I still was going on that stage and shame on me. Lil Wayne gave me a valuable lesson in self worth. He tweeted before he called me, and when I spoke to him he said, ‘Nick, we ain’t doing that show.'”

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