No one is more surprised by the Nicki Minaj/Mariah Carey beef than the rapper herself. Amid rumors that neither will return to American Idol next season, Minaj sat down for an interview with Ryan Seacrest, where her battle with Mimi took center stage.
The dueling judges never quite hit it off, first arguing during Idol auditions months ahead of the show's premiere. Now, Minaj says that she never expected to fall out with her personal idol. "Imagine someone that you loved your whole life," she said. "Imagine meeting them and then all of a sudden feeling like you did something horrible to them, but you just don't know what you did. That's what my relationship with Mariah is, and that's what it's been from the beginning."
Finding common ground has been a challenge for the divas, but it wasn't always that way. Minaj collaborated with Carey for the remix of "Up Out My Face" in 2010, and believed they were on good terms. "I just really thought that we were friends, but that's the other thing I learned, this industry is so fake. You walk away thinking people are your friends, and they're not. It's a couple of nice 'hi' and 'byes' and then really, you better not step on nobody's toes. And God forbid you get a little shine. And God forbid you may be witty or quick on your toes, or make someone laugh, then maybe you're making another person feel insecure."
However, when it comes to Nick Cannon's better half, the YMCMB rhymer has no problem calling out such issues. Before the sit-down with Seacrest, Minaj responded to a "messy" tweet from celeb blogger Perez Hilton, telling him to focus on why Carey "is still so insecure and bitter."
On a purely positive note, working next to her now nemesis has taught the 30-year-old Minaj a valuable lesson. "You shouldn't have to dim your light to let another person shine."

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