Fans are on the edge of their seats, waiting, to see what the newest “American Idol” judge, Nicki Minaj, will do or say next. She is bold on and off the stage, and rarely keeps her  thoughts and opinions to herself. It’s exciting. It’s also no surprise then that Minaj quickly took to her Twitter page recently to air out her latest grievances with legendary Aerosmith rocker and former judge Steven Tyler, himself no slouch in the shooting-off-your-mouth department.

While speaking with MTV about Aerosmith’s new album, Steven Tyler made statements about the new season of “Idol.” One could speculate that Tyler’s comments are coming from a place of frustration. He was, after all, reportedly booted off “Idol,” along with Jennifer Lopez.

Tyler says that the new batch of judges, including Keith Urban, is not what contestants need. According to Tyler, the judges “should have something going on, which is called ‘camaraderie.'” Tyler says that the new contestants, “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.”

Tyler is referring to the former judges’ successful attempts to nurture last season’s contestant, season 11 winner Phillip Phillips. Tyler ends his thoughts by talking about the contestants and saying “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]”. He then makes the mistake of involving the notoriously short-tempered Minaj, saying that she doesn’t know how to nurture talent. “If [a new contestant] 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.”

Obviously, Nicki Minaj took the statement personally. Hours after the interview was released, Minaj took to her Twitter account to offer a public retort to Tyler in front of her 15 millions followers: “I understand you really wanted to keep your job, but take that up with the producers. I haven’t done anything to you.” She also played an unexpected card, adding: “That’s a racist comment.”

The tirade did not end there. Minaj goes on to make serious allegations, “Steven Tyler said I would have sent Bob Dylan to a cornfield??? Steven, you haven’t seen me judge one single solitary contestant yet! You assume that I wouldn’t have liked Bob Dylan??? Why? Black? Rapper? What? Go f— yourself and worry about yourself babe.”

Minaj, prematurely criticized for her judging style, was not having it. This pattern is something we have come to expect of Nicki. No one can say why Fox chose Minaj, but it was definitely not for her subtlety.

During October, while filming the new season of “Idol” in North Carolina, Minaj got into a disagreement with Mariah Carey. After the dust settled, the situation boiled down to a he said/she said situation. Claiming that Minaj is unstable, Carey said that the “Freedom” singer walked off the “Idol” stage after saying: “’If I had a gun I would shoot that b-tch.” Subsequently, Carey ordered more security while filming with Minaj. Surprisingly, Minaj did not directly or publicly address Carey’s allegations.

Last season “Idol” remained popular, but was plagued with eroding ratings and a waning fan base. Fox, realizing that their money maker was in danger of drying up, enlisted the help of high-wattage new judges like Minaj, but whether it will help remains to be seen.

‘Idol’ is still the gold standard,” said Marc Graboff, president of Core Media Group (the company that produces the show), when speaking with The New York Times earlier this year about the thinking behind the new judges. “It’s very viable, but it definitely needs to be refreshed and it will be.”

Have they have bitten off more than they could chew with firecracker Minaj? With less than a month before the new season debuts, Minaj may only become a bigger liability. However, not even Fox can control the bombs that will undoubtedly drop once live taping takes place. Meanwhile we’re still watching….for now. The new season of “American Idol” debuts January 16th and 17th on FOX.