Ex-Employee Files Lawsuit Against Nicki Minaj for Alleged ‘Open-Handed’ Assault

Nicki Minaj Lawsuit Overview

Nicki Minaj is currently entangled in a legal dispute with a former employee who alleges that the rapper punched him in the face during a concert in Detroit last year.

A 10-page complaint was filed on January 3 in Los Angeles, identifying Minaj and her company Pink Personality as the main defendants, including allegations of assault, battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Incident Details and Allegations

According to Rolling Stone, plaintiff Brandon Jovan Garrett stated he was employed by Minaj as a “day-to-day manager” when her head of security summoned him for a meeting in her dressing room at Little Caesars Arena on April 21, 2024.

Garrett claims that Minaj was in a volatile mood, and her frustration regarding her employees’ performance escalated into “rage” after one worker cited handling her prescriptions as a demonstration of his diligence. According to the lawsuit, Minaj expressed dissatisfaction that Garrett had delegated this duty to another employee. He attempted to explain to the “Super Bass” singer that she demanded the prescription “immediately” and that he needed to assign the task since he was occupied assisting her with quick outfit changes before the performance.

“Are you crazy when he took my prescription?” she reportedly yelled at Garrett. “You’re crazy, and if my husband were here, he’d knock your damn teeth out. You are the walking dead. You just ruined your whole life and you’ll never be anything, I’ll make sure of that.”

Garrett further stated that Minaj “abruptly stood up, stomped her feet and aggressively approached” him while continuing her insults. He alleged that she then strike him open-handed on the right side of his face.

This allegedly caused his head to “rock back and his hat to fly off” and Minaj’s second purported punch to the wrist knocked the papers from his hands. In his lawsuit, Garrett claims that after the incident, he fled and locked himself in the bathroom until 4 a.m. before reporting the event to the police and returning to his home in Los Angeles.

NME has reached out to Minaj’s representatives for comment.

Future Plans

In other news, Minaj confirmed late last year that she would embark on a new tour alongside the “next official album,” a revelation that followed the release of the final deluxe edition of her 2023 album, Pink Friday 2, less than a month prior.

In a four-star review of Pink Friday 2, NME stated: “‘Pink Friday 2’ feels like a consolidation and refinement of everything Minaj can do, including ditching pop culture references that no other artist would even consider making.” Thirteen years after Pink Friday, Nicki Minaj has not lost her ability to surprise us.