HELLO AMERICA!—Nicki Minaj doesn’t waste time letting you know that she thinks highly of herself. Her position as judge on a panel of obvious rivals for the spotlight makes her appears as if she is constantly at war. It’s no secret that Mariah Carey can barely stand to be on the same panel with Nicki who has made it very clear she can not stand Carey. And it is just as obvious that Mariah can barely stomach sharing any kind of panel with Minaj.

“I think Nick Minaj is common and phony,” Carey declares. “She believes that all the make-up and hair changes makes her a star. But that’s so not true. It’s still important to be a lady and don’t talk down to people, especially those who are more talented than yourself. And there are many of these young people who stand before us to be judged who are brilliant in what they do. I for one deeply respect them and feel very lucky to have come so far myself.”

Nicki believes she is giving people what they expect of her. And many viewers watch each week to see what she might say or even what kind of outfit she might come up with. “I’m a product,” she said. “I know what sells and I give it to people – why was I signed to be a judge on American Idol? It’s obvious that the producers believed that I would draw people to the show – it’s a no brainer!”

Nicki claims that she is a rebel with a point of view about everything. “I know who I am,” she noted. “And that irritates some people, but that’s their problem. I don’t worry about what other people think about me. I am what I am.”

As for her feelings about the other judges on Idol, she speaks just as frankly about them. “Randy,” she said, “gets on my nerves about ‘pitch’ sometimes. His problem is he has perfect pitch and people like him suffer when they hear something a little off. Most singers have relative pitch, in other words normal. Keith Urban has a lot of class.

He’s easy to be around – he’s a beautiful soul. Now Mariah Carey, well she has a great voice, octaves to the heavens, but she gets on my nerves sometimes with her ‘Miss Queen’ attitude at times. We come from different places, and that’s all I’ve got to say.”

Nicki, however, admitted that being a judge on American Idol has booted her career in a big way. “I’m being seen by millions of people every week,” she said. “Hey, that’s what any artist needs to stay alive in this business.”

By Michael St. John