So­ca su­per­star Machel Mon­tano has apol­o­gised to rap su­per­star, singer and song­writer Nic­ki Mi­naj for what he says was “a mis­take, mis­un­der­stand­ing on his part” for com­ments made at the Stink N Dut­ty. Dur­ing his per­for­mance, he al­lud­ed to a “fight down” against him by Mi­naj and Trinidad Kil­la.

Dur­ing the fete, which was held on Sat­ur­day at the Brain Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my in San Fer­nan­do, Mon­tano was per­form­ing Good Spir­its by the duo Full Blown.

As the mu­sic fad­ed, he said, “Stop it! Stop fight me down. Nic­ki Mi­naj, Trinidad Kil­la, stop fight me down. I is dey dad­dy! I is dey dad­dy! My beard grey.” The crowd cheered and some were heard ex­claim­ing in sur­prise.

Hours lat­er a so­cial me­dia video of Mi­naj (re­al name Oni­ka Maraj-Pet­ty), who was born in Trinidad but is based in the Unit­ed States, was re­leased.

In her video, she asked “What the (ex­ple­tive) I do? What I do?! What the (ex­ple­tive) is this? I will cuss you very, very, very (ex­ple­tive) stink. You un­der­stand? I will cuss you very, very, very (ex­ple­tive) stink.”

Mi­naj has open­ly sup­port­ed Trinidad Kil­la’s (re­al name Kern Joseph) 2025 of­fer­ing Es­ki­mo.

As so­cial me­dia erupt­ed over the clash be­tween the two megas­tars, Mon­tano, in an in­ter­view with Over­time Me­dia yes­ter­day morn­ing, was con­trite.

He ex­plained in a video post­ed on so­cial me­dia, “In the fete, I was just com­pelled to sing the Good Spir­it song and as soon as I start­ed to sing the Good Spir­it song, it start­ed to res­onate deep with­in me es­pe­cial­ly when I said the line ‘don’t fight me down’. The re­sponse from the au­di­ence was so over­whelm­ing that I felt the joy of the Full Blown crew who had been writ­ing these songs for me for so many years and that song be­ing the feel­ing of sup­port for a young up­com­ing artiste.”

Mon­tano ex­plained, “It didn’t come out the way it was sup­posed to come out.”

In­stead, he said he was try­ing to tell Mi­naj to tell Trinidad Kil­la (re­al name Kern Joseph) “to stop fight­ing me down.”

It was un­clear what was the is­sue be­tween Mon­tano and Trinidad Kil­la.

He said he did not want Mi­naj to feel he did not re­spect and ho­n­our her work.

“It was a mis­un­der­stand­ing—a mis­take on my part—and I’m a big man and I will say that. Nic­ki, you know I re­spect you and you know I love you and I did not try to jump out there and at­tack you and I didn’t want any of your fans or you to feel that you have ever done any­thing to fight me down. You did the op­po­site. You al­ways lift me up.”

The reign­ing Ca­lyp­so Monarch and Pardy hit­mak­er asked Mi­naj for for­give­ness.

“I am say­ing for­give me. I am not per­fect. In that mo­ment, I was a lit­tle hot and I didn’t want it to sound to Nic­ki or her fans that she was the one fight­ing me down, be­cause I did feel like I got a lit­tle fight from Kil­la and I want Kil­la to know it was nev­er me. I love Kil­la songs. I’ve been singing it every night on stage.”

In­stead, he called for Trinidad Kil­la, Mi­naj and him­self to join forces.

In 2023, Mon­tano and Mi­naj col­lab­o­rat­ed on a song ti­tled Shake The Place. He even per­formed with Mi­naj at the famed Madi­son Square Gar­den in New York.

Sub­tly weigh­ing in on the is­sue yes­ter­day, Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs, Dr Amery Browne, post­ed on Face­book, “Some of the best col­lab­o­ra­tions were pre­ced­ed by a bit of ten­sion. And some­times those who were pour­ing gas on the fire would be the loud­est ones to clap when gears changed. Life’s like that.”