Usher Regrets Smacking Nicki Minaj’s Butt at the VMAs

Usher, riding high off his triumphant Super Bowl Halftime Show, appeared on Power 105.1 FM’s The Breakfast Club on Tuesday, where host Charlamagne Tha God grilled the performer about some of his past stage antics.

In particular, Charlamagne asked Usher about the time he slapped Nicki Minaj’s butt during their performance at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards.

“Have you seen some of your old moments, like when you were on stage with Nicki Minaj and you were headbutting her ass? Why was you so unhinged?” Charlamagne asked.

At first, Usher tried to explain and laugh it off.

“Absolutely! That was Jamaican culture!” he said. “So you gotta go to Jamaica. That was just a moment that was fun.”

The moment came during the pair’s performance of their 2014 collaboration “She Came to Give It to You,” in which Usher drops down on one knee while playing the bass guitar before getting up and slapping Minaj’s behind.

“By the way, it was me playing my bass, so I probably would’ve bumped my shoulder or my hand, but I had my bass in my hand and I was playing, so I kind of bopped off her body a little bit,” he continued. “If you go back and look at the video, you’ll understand because I did it there for the first time.”

“I think I was reaching a bit when I smacked her, though,” Usher ultimately conceded. “I shouldn’t have smacked her. I shouldn’t have did that.”

Usher also raised eyebrows at the Super Bowl for his loved-up duet with Alicia Keys, who joined him on stage to sing “My Boo.” But Swizz Beats, Keys’ husband, stepped in to defend the R&B crooner, writing on Instagram, “Y’all talking about the wrong damn thing. Congrats @usher and my love @aliciakeys…We don’t do negative vibes on this side.”

See Usher’s full interview on The Breakfast Club below.