Nicki Minaj is en route to Gag City, aka back on the road for her first tour in five years. Her Pink Friday 2 World Tour kicked off at the beginning of the month in support of the highly anticipated sequel to her debut album, Pink Friday, and the Queen of Rap returned to grace her Seattle subjects for the first time since 2012.
Amidst a number of controversies, we can all agree that itâs a strange time for Minaj to go on tour. However, we went in open-mindedâready to play in the hip-hop Barbieâs dreamhouse.
Sundayâs show was kind of a hot mess, but ultimately a good time; kind of like Minajâs prolific career itself. The third stop of Minajâs biggest tour yet was mired by pacing issues, the starâs visible frustration with her production team, and other unknowns. Here are our thoughts from the night.
Audrey Vann, music calendar editor: Well, I regretted not bringing my knitting to the concert because there were so many pauses between songs. I couldâve finished an entire scarf.
Janey Wong, EverOut managing editor: I was so tired from Daylight Saving/coming up from Portland that I took micro naps during the breaks. Speaking of concert SNAFUs, how many people do we think got fired on Sunday?!
AV: That hairstylist trying to touch Nicki up before her âMonsterâ verse, certainly. Did you see Nicki push her? My sister thought it was a skit.
JW: I couldnât see it from my vantage point, so I had no idea until a friend sent me this TikTok. Tbh, Iâm not as up in arms as Iâve seen some people be. Itâs been well-documented that Queen Bey can also get snippy when production isnât running to her exacting standards. This hairstylist missed their mark and it looked to me like Nicki was turning her around and sending her off stage rather than pushing her.
AV: Totally, thatâs a good point. Even though the show was a bit of a mess, I still feel defensive of Nicki. The standard for female performers is too high. We should let women be mediocre and rude. I honestly thought it was kind of iconic that she read her lyrics off of a teleprompter.
JW: Omg, the prompter! Aside from glancing at the setlist beforehand, the only thing I knew going into the show was that Nicki had been using one, and poorly at that. I guess when your tracks are so lyrically dense, your setlist is 30-plus songs, and youâre running on the adrenaline of performing, thatâs a recipe for forgetting lyrics⌠god, it sounds like Iâm a Nicki apologist.Â
AV: She does have a lot of songs. But also, I kind of felt like if the majority of the crowd knew every word, then surely she could try to memorize them. Where do you fall on the Barb scale? I would say Iâm a critical fan. Sheâs disappointed me a lot over the years, yet I come crawling back. Itâs not something Iâm proud of.
JW: Same⌠longtime fan, but not a Barb by any means. Iâd say I know more Nicki lore than her average listener but standomâtowards any artistâjust isnât for me.
AV: Did you feel guilty about attending the concert? I was a little afraid that going to the show could come across as condoning her behavior or taking her side in the Megan Thee Stallion feud (stream âHISS!â) Ultimately, I thought itâd be an interesting show and I do love her music.
JW: This is an interesting question. A few things: I wasnât following hers and Meganâs most recent beef in real-time, so it wasnât top of mind for me how problematic Nicki has been lately. She for sure took things too far there (Câmon, you donât come for someoneâs deceased parent! And she straight up embarrassed herself with âBig Foot.â) She seems to keep her very yikes relationship on the low for the most part, so on some level, she knows itâs wrong? Or at least her publicist has told her itâs a bad look.Â
But to your larger point, where we draw the line at overlooking someoneâs bad behavior because their talent eclipses it is something I think about a lot. Sheâs been problematic from the jump: her appropriation of East Asian aesthetics, naming an alter ego (Roman Zolanski) after a convicted rapist, the list goes on.
AV: The conversation about Nickiâs marriage and family (her brother and husband are both convicted sex offenders) canât be ignored, either. I am not so sure that Nicki should be accountable for the behavior of men in her life. However, I think she should be held accountable for the things sheâs said in their defense, her general discounting of SA survivors, and her other problematic behavior.Â
What did you think of Tyga and Monica? I thought it was an interesting tactic to have them come out in the middle. I think an âintermissionâ or âhalftime showâ isnât a bad idea for an arena concert.
JW: I wasnât mad at this format at all! Monica came on and was basically like, âHereâs how you sing live.â And I had no idea Tyga had showed up at the Vegas concert so I was gagged by that. The only thing that wouldâve made it better is if Nicki also did her âBedrockâ verse. What a waste.
AV: Agreed! When he came out, I was like, âThatâs not actually Tyga, right?â I was so confused. I wish they wouldâve announced him before he came out. I saw people around me leaving because they thought the show was over.
JW: Yeah, Iâm sure there were a good number of people that a) had no idea what was going on or b) hated this part.Â
AV: Did you hear any comments or complaints from the crowd? The Barbz seated around me were loving every secondâI did not hear a single complaint.Â
JW: The group behind me complained when she took forever to come back on after the special guests. Which is super valid; it was a Sunday night and she had a good 35-minute break to reset!! That concert was one of the latest Iâve ever been to⌠we got outta there at like 1:30 am.Â
What was the highlight of the show for you?Â
AV: When Nicki came back out after Monica and Tyga, I thought she was incredible. When sheâs on, sheâs on. It was so much fun to hear her perform âAnaconda.â Thatâs one of my favorites. The music video always makes me cry for some reason. She was so incredibly captivating and powerful during those last few songs.
JW: Yes, she seemed to hit her stride in the last act.Â
AV: What was the highlight for you?
JW: Aside from âAnaconda,â I do not particularly care for Nickiâs radio singles. (I think some of her strongest work is her guest verses.) So âMonsterâ was the track I was looking forward to most, and she delivered on that and âRomanâs Revenge,â too. Off PF2, âCowgirlâ was so fun!!Â
AV: Another high point for me was the pre-show DJ. He was a little cringy and gave me prom DJ vibes, but I loved seeing the sea of Barbz (90% of whom were dressed in pink) screaming the lyrics to TLCâs âNo Scrubsâ and âI Want It That Wayâ by the Backstreet Boys. Nickiâs fans are very intimidating on the internet, but IRL, they were a delight.
JW: That part was unexpectedly funâbut it does say a lot that one of the showâs highlights was when Nicki wasnât even on stage.Â
All told, I think itâs fair to say this show was as polarizing as Nicki herself. Sheâs such a deft wordsmith and an all-around talented artist, I just wish that she could get it right and let her work speak for itself. Sheâs cemented herself as a queen in the rap game and the wider pop culture landscape, so we know her braggadocio isnât all talk. As she exclaims in âChun-Li,â âThey need rappers like me.â