"[Nicki Minaj] Told Flex 'If He Don't Get Out, I'm Gonna Leave.' She Started Counting Down 5, 4, 3..."

[With Nicki Minaj recently claiming she is back on good terms with the Hot 97 crew after their publicized Summer Jam dispute, the station's comedic morning show host Cipha Sounds tells SOHH readers of a wild mix-up she had with him a few years ago.]

The first time I ever met her at--maybe I met her once before when she was doing mixtapes and stuff--when she was Nicki Minaj for real, I met her at Summer Jam when D-Roc was road managing her.

D-Roc was Biggie's best friend. I used to be on the road with him because he used to manage Lil' Kim and I used to be Lil' Kim's DJ, blah blah blah. And I was like "Yo, can you introduce me to Nicki? I'm a big fan of hers." I literally said that to him. And he's like "Word? Come over here." And she's like "Y'all be talking sh*t about me. And I literally said in front of [Peter] Rosenberg, "Me? No, that's him." But for some reason I got caught up in the whole sh*t. Hey, I don't give a f*ck. You don't like me? I don't care.

I like telling artists "Hey, I'm a fan. I don't want a mixtape from you, a freestyle, I don't want you to come to my club, I don't want anything. I really don't give a f*ck. I like music, I like talking to my fans on the radio, I like having fun.

Down the line, I went to go talk to her in person because it was getting a little out of hand; I felt she was definitely taking offense to stuff. So [Funkmaster] Flex was interviewing her, I went to go talk to her, hopefully get something for the radio. If not, cool. I'm all for squashing beef, I'm all for making people understand the truth that I speak, maybe you misunderstood.

If I said something to offend you, I apologize. I never have a problem apologizing. I'm not some tough dude with all this pride sh*t. I went up there to talk to her; she walked into the room, saw me, she said "What the h*ll is he doing here? She told Flex "If he don't get! out, I' m gonna leave." She started counting down 5, 4, 3... I'm not gonna ruin Flex's interview. That's my man, I would feel like sh*t if she left and it f*cked up his show and he got mad at me.

So I walked out the room. Me as a comedian, right away, I'm spinning it, "Yo, Nicki Minaj kicked me out." It's funny. I'm a self-deprecating comedian. I don't really care. I come on the radio, "Yo, Nicki Minaj kicked me out of studio," and everybody's like "Oh, Nicki Minaj kicked you out your own studio." It's funny. When people laugh at me or laugh with me, either way it's laughing. I want to make people laugh. And then, she thought--she kept calling me Rosenberg to Flex.

I was like "Does she think I'm Rosenberg? F*ck. Am I that ugly?" So whatever, I met her manager who was a different manager than the last time I met, who used to be Keisha Cole's manager, I'm mad cool with him. I said "Yo, I just wanted to tell her I'm sorry if she took offense to anything we said and if there's any way to squash it." I'm trying to be a gentleman. He said "I'll work on it."

Never heard back from them, cool. Then this sh*t happened, and f*cking I don't understand why those dudes don't talk to us. And then it would make everyone listen if she just talked directly to us. It's not even us, I say us because we're a team, it's really him. And listen, Rosenberg's an ego-maniac. He's loving this attention. You made his day. For ten seconds he was like "Yo, am I gonna get in trouble for this?" I said "What'd you say?" He said if you want real underground hip-hop and not that "Starship" bullsh*t and I said "No, you won't get in trouble for that." You didn't say anything, you didn't offend anybody. You just said you don't like that song.

In 1996, Cipha Sounds started as an intern with Wildman Steve and DJ Riz of New York's Flip Squad, and eventually Riz asked Cipha to spin at clubs with him as an opening DJ. Later on, the opportunity of a lifetime presented itself when Lil' Kim asked Cipha to go on to! ur with her. For a year and a half Cipha worked with Lil' Kim, the country and Europe. After he returned to the U.S., Hot 97's Funkmaster Flex asked Cipha to join his Big Dawg Pitbulls crew. Cipha became a mix show DJ on Funkmaster Flex's evening show on Hot 97, and he eventually got his own show called Cipha Saturdays at the same station. On Sirius Satellite Radio's Shade 45 channel, he hosted a show called The Cipha Sounds Effect along with Angela Yee, DJ Wonder and the Emoticon. He started the show in 2004, and his last show was on July 1, 2008. "Cipha Sounds and Rosenberg" airs mornings on Hot 97.