Nicki Minaj goes off on Mariah Carey after a disagreement over an American Idol audition.

American Idol is making it’s audition rounds for their new season, and with this new season came new judges. AI alum Randy Jackson is joined by Nicki Minaj, Mariah Carey and Keith Urban for the 12th season, and there’s already drama. On Wednesday, TMZ received video footage of an altercation between Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey, reportedly after a disagreement over a contestant’s audition. Take a look at the footage:

In case you weren’t able to decipher what was said:

Nicki: Think I’m playin? Think this sh*t is a f*cking joke? Think it’s a joke? Think it’s a joke? Think it’s a joke? Say one more disrespectful thing to me, if you say one more disrespectful thing to me — off with your head!

Mariah: I am not being disrespectful.

Nicki: Off with your head, off with your head.

Nicki: Don’t tell me I’m insecure, don’t tell me I’m inadequate … you gonna get sent [inaudible] just fall back; don’t … you don’t know [inaudible] I don’t feel inadequate. You’re the insecure one sittin’ up there running down her resume every five minutes.

Nicki: Every time you take a shot at me I’ma take it back, and if you gotta f*cking problem then handle it. I told them, I’m not f*cking putting up with your f*cking highness over there … figure it the f*ck out. Figure it out.

Mariah: whyyyy, whhyyyyy …

Nicki: Figure it out

Mariah: … do I have a 3-year-old sitting around me???

Nicki: I’m not sitting here for 20 minutes and having you run down your resume everyday, No! Goodbye!

Mariah: Listen … I can’t see my kids because you decided to make … to have … to have a little baby fit and going all around the stage.

Nicki: Good, well then go see them now, go see them now … you’re boring as f*ck, you’re boring as f*ck.

The altercation shut down the rest of auditions for the day in order to give the judges time to “cool off”. Thursday on The View, Barbara Walters conducted an interview with Mariah Carey, which you can see below:

Nicki Minaj took to twitter on Thursday after hearing about the Barbara Walters exclusive, and I think it’s safe to say she wasn’t pleased. She states that the producers called her the “best judge since Simon” and she also said that the gun comment Mariah is talking about is completely fabricated. Click on the thumbnails below to view the gallery.

I must say, kudos to whoever leaked this footage. American Idol does well with ratings every year, but with XFactor and The Voice becoming increasingly popular, American Idol was getting a bit stale. Leaking this argument and making it such a big deal will do nothing except get people interested in watching the season when it premieres.

With that said, there is a lot of shady stuff going on. First of all, in Nicki’s defense, I am sure that Mariah was listing all of her achievements. Maybe she wasn’t, but it does seem like something she would do. She’s been very successful and very popular and sometimes success brings a big ego. She wouldn’t be the first diva to grace our television sets. I am interested in what was so special (or not so special) about the contestant’s audition that caused such an uproar among the two judges. It’s also a bit shady that no one stepped in to try and neutralize the situation as it was happening, especially if staff overheard Nicki saying she would shoot Mariah. I mean, I don’t think Nicki would ever do that, I don’t think that’s even her style. However, if she did say that, producers should have gotten involved immediately and I would think that would be a comment that would cause some sort of consequences. I don’t know, like I said, shady. There was drama between the two of them before they even went to auditions. Was anyone surprised? Apparently Mariah has been upset that Nicki was chosen to be a judge. Let’s all just remember that Nicki is a classically trained singer. I know it’s a shock to hear that, but it’s true.

Then there’s the seemingly biased journalism by Barbara Walters. First she let’s us all know that she is very friendly with Mariah, then she lets us all know that she went out of her way to call Mariah this morning to ask her some questions. Why didn’t she also make an attempt to reach Nicki or any of Nicki’s people? Instead she says that if Nicki wants she can contact The View. Then during their discussion on The View, whenever anyone seems to try and say something in favor of Nicki, or maybe just even playing devil’s advocate, Barbra shuts them down. Way to show us your whole deck Barbz.

I do have to give Mariah credit for keeping her cool during Nicki’s rant. I did think it was a bit immature to just whine out, “WHYYYY, WHYYYY…. ARE YOU THREE?!”, but she never swore back at her and she never got crazy. Apparently Nicki hasn’t apologized, but did say that she loves Mariah.
I’m thinking it went more like this: