Simon Cowell has addressed reports claiming that he is considering hiring Nicki Minaj for his upcoming US X Factor series.

The 51 year old star admitted that he is ‘interested’ in the rap star and said that although she may not judge on the TV talent show, he is keen to get her involved in one of his projects.

Simon told XXL:

“We spoke to Nicki actually about a lot of projects. It wasn’t specifically about this, but we were just very interested to meet her. I’m a big fan of hers. So I don’t know if it’s gonna be this show or something in the future, but it was definitely somebody I wanted to meet.”

On her quick rise to notoriety and the top of the music charts, Cowell added: “Off her own back she’s had a phenomenal year last year and she’s gonna have a phenomenal year this year.

“She’s very smart, very influential, very bright, along with artists like Jessie J. You can’t ignore them and sooner or later they have to be in our world and we have to be in their world.”