Nicki Minaj has “spiraled out of control,” say top music-industry insiders, amid disastrous ticket sales for her now-canceled tour — as she lashed out at Travis Scott and Kylie Jenner, accusing them of using their baby Stormi to boost his album sales.
Industry sources told us that Minaj has been “freaking out” about painfully slow ticket sales for her North America tour with Future, which had been scheduled to start next month, but was canceled late Tuesday night.
A Live Nation source told us, “Nicki’s tour looked to be the most disappointing ticket sales of the year for any artist. She and Future were booked in big arenas with around 20,000 capacities.
As of Tuesday, the source added, “Sales for opening night in Baltimore were just 2,000 tickets. LA was 3,400 – for a 17,000 capacity venue – New Orleans 1,000, Denver 1,300, Chicago 3,900. Even Nicki’s hometown of New York City, the Barclays Center (which has a capacity of 19,000) sold only 5,050 tickets.”
Late Tuesday night Live Nation announced Minaj had thrown in the towel on the tour claiming the decision was to allow her to “reevaluate elements of production.”
LN said in a statement, “Following her unforgettable VMA performance, Nicki Minaj has decided to reevaluate elements of production on the NickiHndrxx Tour. … [and] to contribute more time to rehearsal ahead of the tour’s launch to make certain her fans get the absolute best quality show that they deserve.”
But the truth is, “Nicki’s tour ticket sales were not just in the toilet, they were totally down the drain. There was no way the tour could go forward,” the Live Nation source added.
Minaj is also in a monstrous mood that her new album “Queen” is this week at No. 2 on the Billboard chart behind Travis Scott’s No. 1 album “Astroworld.”
On Monday, Minaj went after Scott and Kylie Jenner on her Beats 1 show, “Queen Radio,” accusing them of manipulating the sales of his No. 1 album by using a well-known industry tactic of bundling free albums with merchandise — including clothing and so-called tour passes — to bump up sales figures.
Minaj fumed that Scott was “selling f - - king sweaters [and] tour passes” and parading daughter Stormi “for publicity.” She also branded Scott “ho n - - - a of the week.” But Minaj failed to mention that she had also bundled album sales with merchandise such as hoodies on her website, and she had also sold a $5 tour pin, which included her album as a bonus, and sales of both could be counted towards her Billboard chart ranking.
An industry insider said, “Nicki has gone off the rails. She can’t take it that she sold less records than Cardi B (who’s stealing her thunder big time) in her first week; she can’t take it that Travis beat her to No. 1. Her ticket sales for her tour were in the toilet, and it’s making her even more crazy.”
Reps for Scott didn’t get back to us.
This comes after a major Minaj meltdown on Twitter, when she caused a stir by comparing herself to abolitionist Harriet Tubman. Sources say she was acting such diva at the MTV Video Music Awards in New York Monday, show organizers moved Scott and Jenner to seats farther away from her.
A rep for Minaj didn’t comment, and didn’t get back to us regarding the terrible ticket sales figures.