Mariah Carey On Nicki Minaj Feud: ‘I’m Going To Press Delete’

Former American Idol judge Mariah Carey spoke candidly on her alleged feud with fellow judge Nicki Minaj when she stopped by Power 105.1 to chat with The Breakfast Club on February 12th. When host Charlamagne Tha God teased Mariah around her apparent tardiness to the interview, he half-jokingly mentioned “Nicki was late,” which prompted a completely off-the-cuff response to her time as an American Idol judge.

“I don’t even remember what that was,” Mariah quickly confessed. “That was a moment in my life that I’m going to press delete.”

That “moment” in question was Season 12 of American Idol where the reality competition focused heavily on the alleged feud between herself and fellow pop diva Nicki Minaj. It was not a time Mariah remembers fondly. But Power 105.1 host Charlamagne Tha God pressed, asking the pop diva if she regretted her time on the show to which Carey hesitated before choosing her response carefully:

“If you really wanna know the truth of the matter,” Mariah prefaced before getting into the meat of her contention. “Really it was like I was hoping to be more of a mentor for the people there on the show, for the contestants. And I wanted to and I did give them input on the side, when I could. Not like illegally. When it was alright.”

Carey continued, “I wasn’t happy there because I felt like I couldn’t be real. And I thought it was going to be a three person panel. And that would have been cool.”

Finally she discussed how she felt Idol veered off course, emphasizing her feud with Nicki Minaj for the sake of ratings:

“They chose to go a different direction, which felt very reality TV,” Carey confessed. “If I had known that there was another female that they planned on emphasizing and making it about jokes and laughs and whatever then I would have been like ‘Okay, do that and I’ll catch you guys next time.'”

Following the conclusion of Season 12, both Nicki and Mariah left as judges.

Nicki Minaj meanwhile has been making news herself lately, and not in the most positive of ways. Minaj was heavily criticized, as previously reported on the Inquisitr, for using artwork containing revered activist Malcolm X holding a gun as the cover art for her new song, Lookin A** N*****.

Minaj has since apologized for the incident on her Instagram account:

“Well, I apologize. That was never the official artwork nor is this an official single.” She added, “This is a conversation. Not a single.”

Check out the entire Mariah Carey interview with Power 105.1 below where she talks American Idol, Lenny Kravitz and of course her alleged feud with Nicki Minaj: