When Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler?has a disagreement with?someone and he comes across as the more sensible one, it is worth noting.?In this case, it’s Steven?”Way-out-osphere” Tyler versus Queen Crazy herself, Nicki Minaj.
Basically, what happened is that Steven made a somewhat critical statement?in an interview with?MTV about the panel of judges who replaced Jennifer Lopez and himself on the new?season of American Idol, namely Nicki, Mariah Carey, and Keith Urban. And when Nicki heard Steven’s criticism, she lost her fucking mind.
When Steven was first asked by MTV about the new American Idol judges,?he didn’t name names … but it was quite clear to whom he was referring. He mentioned that “some people” who may or may not have pink hair “need a manager to say ‘shut the fuck up, and just give them your opinion.'”?Steven went on to discuss how the discord between the judges could negatively impact the performers.
“I know that they’ve got something going on on the judges’ panel, [and] it shouldn’t be that, it should be just the opposite: They should have something going on, which is called ‘camaraderie.’ … [The contestants], they just got out of a car from the Midwest somewhere and they’re in New York City, they’re scared to death; you’re not going to get the best [out of them].”
Steven’s point, if I may paraphrase,?is that the idea behind American Idol is to find raw, new talent and that the role of the judges is to first recognize and then to nurture that?talent …?not terrify it with childish cat fights and erratic behavior.?While his?point is valid,?unfortunately?once he’s made it Steven continues to ramble like a pretentious asshole about talent and birthing things and that things that are thick and beautiful to the point that he loses all credibility.
“They should have something going on so thick and beautiful that they can lay it over the new talent that’s trying to birth itself. It needs to be birthed, not judged by ‘entertainment’ factors, it needs to be judged by people that [are] honest, true, that have the ‘it’ factor.”
Later, Steven specifically targets Nicki as a judge who wouldn’t have recognized true talent.
“If it was Bob Dylan, Nicki Minaj would have had him sent to the cornfield! Whereas, if it was Bob Dylan with us, we would have brought the best of him out, as we did with Phillip Phillips. Just saying.”
Steven may pat himself on the back for his discovery of the embarassingly named Phillip Phillips, but it’s not clear exactly why he singled out Nicki?as the one who wouldn’t have recognized?talent.?Nicki, for her part, took this slight with her customary grace. She tweeted:
“You assume that I wouldn’t have liked Bob Dylan??? why? black? rapper? what? go fuck yourself and worry about yourself babe.”
Darling Nicki’s feelings were hurt and instead of blinking away the tears, hearing his words, and possibly learning from them (not that she should have necessarily … it’s fucking Steven Tyler, not the Pope), she did exactly what he was accusing her of doing and let her ego get in the way. And I think we can all agree …?if you feel that you have been unfairly attacked, the?most mature, most effective?way to retaliate is with an equally unfair attack, ideally on Twitter.
Nicki responded to Steven by suggesting that Steven’s jealous that she’s a judge and he no longer is, that?his Bob Dylan comment?was “racist,” and even concludes her tirade with following bit of nonsense:
?LOL lets make him a shirt that says “No Coloreds Allowed” then escort him down 2 Barbara Walters so he can tell how he was threatened w/guns.?
Nicki’s thoughts are so scattered and poorly articulated that it’s actually quite sad. She'did make a good point, though,?when she reminded Steven that the shows haven’t aired yet, so no one has seen her judging ability.
“Steven, you haven’t seen me judge one single solitary contestant yet,”
Since Nicki knows that’s the case …?Steven hasn’t actually seen her judge yet and therefore his opinions about her competency as a judge are completely and utterly meaningless … then her point would be much better served by keeping her mouth shut and letting him eat his words in January when the shows are actually broadcast.
Nicki’s rude and hasty reaction to Steven’s rude and hasty comments are emblematic of society’s major problems, which?are that Twitter is a horrible invention and most famous people are incredibly fucking stupid.
sheila says
so…..Randy is also a person of colour…. are we to assume that he is unable to judge a white person’s talent as well?
I can see why she’s annoyed – after all, she’s been publicly dismissed by a fellow musical artist – but I think she went a little overboard with the racist thing. I don’t think Steven Tyler meant she couldn’t judge a white person’s talent just because she’s black – I think he meant to denegrate her judgement of talent because he thinks she has no talent herself. Just sayin’.