The answer, obviously, was her new “Pink Friday 2 World Tour,” which kicked off March 1 in Oakland, Calif., and made a stopover March 3
in Denver before landing in Las Vegas on Friday night.
It’s been quite a road for the artist since releasing those “couple of tapes” as an underground rapper. In its first week, “Pink Friday” sold more than 375,000 copies, the largest sales week for a female hip-hop artist since Lauryn Hill’s 1998 classic studio album, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.”
Since then, Minaj has released four more albums, including the much-heralded “Pink Friday 2” late last year, her first in five years. She’s been a judge on television’s “American Idol,” has had roles in a couple of films, landed deals with Fortune 500 companies and released her own collection of nail polishes.
But it was her music that brought her fans — including many of her devoted Barbz —to a sold-out T-Mobile, and Minaj didn’t leave them disappointed.
Changing costumes numerous times and appearing on a stage that dazzled with its many different lights, backdrops and videos, Minaj was a dancing dynamo for most of the two-hour show. She performed new songs — parts of 16 cuts from “Pink Friday 2,” including “Barbie Dangerous,” the high-energy “FTCU,” “Nicki Hendrix” and the TikTok friendly “Everybody.” She performed old songs, including “Super Bass,” “Roman’s Revenge” and “Right Through Me.” She added in a couple of covers, Kanye West’s “Monster,” and “Barbie World.”
She even included a song that, as recently as New Year’s Eve, Minaj vowed she would never perform anymore: the 2012 single “Starships.”