Nicki Minaj Kicks Photographer’s Camera Over ‘Inappropriate Filming’

Nicki Minaj has apologized for kicking a photographer’s camera after she mistakenly believed he was filming her inappropriately on stage.

Minaj was performing on stage at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas, on Thursday during her Pink Friday 2 World Tour.

In footage that was shared by Minaj on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter), the rapper is seen dancing on stage when she sees a photographer filming her in the audience.

Minaj mistakenly believes the photographer is trying to film her from an inappropriate angle. In the video, Minaj goes over to the photographer and kicks the camera out of his hands.

The photographer is filmed telling the rapper “Ow that’s me! No!” but Minaj stomps on the camera.

The photographer’s camera is then seen flying out of his hands and falling underneath the stage.

Minaj posted the clip online on Friday with the caption: “This is one of the craziest things we’ve ever captured. Y’all please look at this.”

Nicki Minaj’s Apology to The Photographer

However, a day later, Minaj issued an apology to the photographer in a post on Instagram.

In the post, the rapper explained that the photographer was Alex Loucas, also known as “Grizz,” who she described as “one of my fave people in all the land.”

Minaj says she mistakenly believed that Grizz was a “Peeping Tom” so he attacked him and “began stomping him” and his camera.

“Grizz, my apologies I love you,” the rapper writes in the caption of her Instagram post.

The incident comes one week after Shakira was forced to leave the stage during a performance after she reportedly spotted an audience member trying to film up her skirt — an act also known as “upskirting” — before abruptly leaving the stage.

Upskirting means the act of taking photographs beneath a woman’s skirt without their consent. But the term has also come to generally define the act of taking a sexually intrusive photograph of someone without their permission.

Earlier this year, a Japanese sportswear brand introduced infrared-blocking fabric to protect athletes from upskirting and other illicit photography. The problem of upskirting is so acute in Japan that lawmakers there passed a bill last year criminalizing “photo voyeurism.”