‘American Idol’ notes: Phillip Phillips performs; Nicki Minaj vs. Steven Tyler

We’re going to focus the start of this new edition of “American Idol” notes on something that we have truly found to be rather bizarre and yet entertaining: the new feud between Steven Tyler and Nicki Minaj over the way in which she is handling herself as a judge for season 12 of the show.

The story basically goes like this: Tyler was asked to give his opinion on the new judges as a part of a new interview with MTV News, and he specifically chose to hone in on the recent fight that happened between Minaj and Mariah Carey while the two were wrapping up an audition with a contestant. Most indications are that this fight was really just an isolated incident in the midst of a number of auditions that occurred over the course of several months, and Steven is commenting her without actually watching the show yet. Plus, we also find it hilarious that he seems to think that he did something outside of just tell every singer trying out that they were “beautiful,” and that he takes some sort of responsibility for Phillip Phillips’ success:

“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.’ 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. Not the ‘it’ factor because they can fight. The f— is that all about?”

“You just have to give your opinion. It wasn’t hard for me, but I would imagine it’s hard for some people, and they need a manager to say ‘Shut the f— up, and just give them your opinion.’ These kids, 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]. … 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.”

As for Minaj’s response, she posted on Twitter that she felt that race played a role in what Tyler was saying, and she also took advantage of the opportunity to also rip Mariah Carey for telling Barbara Walters that she threatened her with a gun, which is something that she vehemently denies:

“Steven Tyler said I would have sent Bob Dylan to a cornfield??? Steven, you haven’t seen me judge one single solitary contestant yet! I understand you really wanted to keep your job but take that up with the producers. I haven’t done anything to you. That’s a racist comment. You assume that I wouldn’t have liked Bob Dylan??? why? black? rapper? what? go f–k yourself and worry about yourself babe. 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 does make one comment at the end of this rant that is rather astute: Tyler was ridiculed heavily by his peers in the rock community for joining the show, and now he is coming out and doing the same thing to his replacement.

On a more pleasant note, let’s close things off here with a performance from Phillip on “The Rachael Ray Show” today. There are no judges here to complain, even if this is the umpteenth time we have heard the guy sing “Home” while on his promotional tour.