A celebrity photographer just dropped some inside info about Nicki Minaj and how she treats people behind the scenes.
Erik Madigan Heck worked with the rapper on a New York Times magazine cover shoot 11 years ago. He says the experience left him disgusted with her behavior.
The photographer shared his story on Instagram after Nicki appeared at Donald Trump’s recent political event. He called her a “total p############” and revealed some wild details about that shoot.
Heck said Nicki showed up eight hours late to a previous Terry Richardson shoot. He had to prepare for the possibility that she would delete his hard drives if she didn’t like the photos. The team backed up every single shot to three different drives.
“After four hours of hair and makeup, she surprisingly had become the character I illustrated in my drawings,” Heck wrote.
But then things went sideways fast. Nicki walked off the set after just eight frames. She wanted to leave after only three pictures.
“It was a s###-show, to be kind,” the photographer said.
Here’s where it gets really messy. Heck revealed a conversation he had with Nicki’s security team during a cigarette break.
“Her bodyguards all were strapped with Glock 9’s on their waists,” he wrote. “And while having a cigarette break, I asked one of her bodyguards why they tolerated how awfully she spoke to them, like peasants.”
The bodyguards just smiled at him without saying anything. That silence spoke volumes about what they witnessed on set. Heck said he constructed the portrait “as an illustration of a dictator.”
He called it “a protest poster” against “bad music, bad people, and magazines putting bad music and bad people on their covers.” The photographer also slammed Nicki as just “an agitator” who was never on the level of Lil Kim or Foxy Brown.
This story comes right after Nicki declared herself Trump’s “number one fan” at a Treasury Department event. She gushed about the president and said criticism only makes her support him more.
That Trump support has cost her big time in Hollywood. Multiple celebrities have unfollowed her on social media.
Kim Petras, who worked with Nicki on the song “Alone,” seemed to respond to her anti-trans comments. Kim wrote “trans kids r healthy btw” after Nicki attacked California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Real Housewives star Candiace Dillard Bassett went nuclear on her podcast. She called Nicki “a pick-me-ass, Uncle Tom-ass clown-ass degenerate.”
Rapper Khia told Nicki to “get your ass back to Trinidad” and called her out for pretending to be Trump’s friend. Joe Budden said he’s completely done defending her. He called her AmFest appearance “anti-Black” and the “last candle on the cake.”
Charli XCX, Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande have all unfollowed Nicki on social media. Then came the 2026 Grammy Awards on February 1. Host Trevor Noah roasted Nicki during his opening monologue.
“Someone was conspicuously absent from this year’s Grammys,” Noah said. “Nicki Minaj is still at the White House with Donald Trump discussing very important issues.”
The entire music industry laughed as cameras showed Chrissy Teigen giving a thumbs-up to the joke.
