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Nicki Minaj is being sued by a former employee who alleges that the rapper assaulted him after a Pink Friday 2 World Tour concert in April.
Brandon Garrett, who wrote that he was working as Minaj’s day-to-day manager at the time, also accused her of intentional infliction of emotional distress in the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that he filed Friday.
Garrett said the incident took place in Minaj’s dressing room after a performance at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. The singer was upset by her staff’s disorganization, he wrote in the lawsuit, and was trying to sort out each worker’s responsibilities.
Minaj started swearing after learning that another employee had picked up her prescription medication when she assigned the task to Garrett, according to the complaint. Garrett explained that he had been unable to pick the meds up himself because he was helping Minaj get dressed at the time, he said.
“Your life is over!” Minaj allegedly yelled. According to the complaint, she then open-hand slapped Garrett, “causing his head to swing backward as his hat flew off his head,” and hit him on the wrist before ordering him to leave the room.
“She resorted to physical violence and threatened his life,” said Garrett’s lawyer, Tom Feher, in a statement. “Her celebrity status does not entitle her to such behavior.”
Minaj’s lawyer, Judd Burstein, told The Washington Post on Monday that he had no comment beyond a previous statement to TMZ, in which he said that Minaj had not yet seen the lawsuit but that the allegations detailed in the outlet were “completely false and frivolous.”
The Pink Friday 2 World Tour, nicknamed the Gag City World Tour by Minaj’s fans, was her first tour in five years and became the highest-grossing tour for a female rapper, according to Billboard. “Pink Friday 2,” her latest album, topped the Billboard 200 when it was released in December 2023, making her the only female rapper to clinch three No. 1 albums on the chart.
Minaj, whose real name is Onika Maraj-Petty, is a Trinidadian Grammy-nominated artist with hits such as “Starships” and “Super Bass.” She has been credited with helping revive a mainstream embrace of female rap, paving the way for contemporaries such as Sexyy Red and Doja Cat. She also brought back female rap beefs, notably releasing the diss track “Big Foot” against Megan Thee Stallion last year and fighting Cardi B at a New York Fashion Week party in 2018.