Nicki Minaj delivers spectacle backed up by skill on biggest tour of her career: Review

WASHINGTON – As one of the most celebrated, successful rappers and engaging personalities, Nicki Minaj could slouch her way through her Pink Friday 2 tour and fans would still slather her with praise.

After all, they don’t seem to mind the continued late starts – 10:20 p.m. at Monday’s Capital One Arena in D.C., more than two hours past the ticketed promise but in line with her timing so far on tour – prefaced by an interminable DJ set.

But Minaj, who kicked off her 30-date world outing March 1 and has produced a string of arena sell-outs since, is undiminished in her vitality and spunkiness.

From the moment she rose from underneath the stage floor, draped in white from the waist down and sporting a metallic top for the confident tone-setter “I’m the Best,” Minaj, 41, oozed coolness.

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Gag City is Nicki Minaj’s Oz

For her first U.S. run in eight years, Minaj has crafted her most grandiose production: a slick, vibrant beauty of staircases, tiers, towering video panels and a lengthy catwalk to allow her plenty of room to strut.

It’s a Nicki-fied Oz, a neon playground on which she and her dancers could exact the rhythms of new tracks such as “FTCU,” “Barbie Dangerous” and “Cowgirl” with style.

The fictionalized Gag City – an idea created by fans using artificial intelligence for the arrival of last year’s “Pink Friday 2” album – was brought to reality in the form of a cityscape outlined in fuchsia for some songs and black and red for others.

During the alluring Asian-themed segment offering “Chun-Li” and the percussive “Ruby Red da Sleeze,” Minaj ducked into a phone booth for a quick change – a la Clark Kent – from her hooded robe to a long, pink wig (one of many she would sport throughout the night).

Nicki Minaj loves to play with fans

Minaj is endlessly entertaining to watch. She might drop into a marionette pose in “Win Again” or grind against the stage floor and literally engage in the lyrics of “Feeling Myself.”

Her gift is to go from spitting daggers to turning coquettish and she says as much with her alluring eyes as her pointed lyrics, which her fans devour.

Those devotees – affectionately dubbed “The Barbz” – turned the arena into a sea of salmon-colored fashion, from cowgirl hats to crop tops, boots to glittery shorts.

But more than their visuals, the crowd clearly worshipped Minaj’s every movement, especially her stings that landed with a smile.

Late in the show, Minaj handed her microphone to several audience members to sing the refrain of “The Night is Still Young.” She jokingly scolded their off-key renditions with typical side eye, but broke into spontaneous gyrations and a grin when one fan instead sang, “Nicki is still young!”

Before that inspirational anthem, Minaj addressed the crowd with her usual candor.

“People want money and they want cars and they want houses … and they ain’t got no peace. So what does it mean? I’d rather peace in the projects building. ‘Cause when you’ve got peace, you can think. And when you can think, you can prosper,” she told the cheering throng.

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Nicki Minaj’s concert guests are great, but slow momentum

A handful of songs into her set, Minaj rolled into “Beep Beep,” a heaping serving of drums, pyro and 50 Cent.

The superstar rapper strolled out in a white baseball cap, jeans and a sparkly blue jacket to match Minaj’s outfit of the moment for the song – featured on the deluxe version of “Pink Friday 2” – before taking over the stage during a Minaj costume change.

His smile gleaming and his spirit apparently soaring, 50 Cent steered the crowd through singalongs of several hits including “What Up Gangsta,” “P.I.M.P.” and the inevitable “In Da Club.”

His presence was certainly welcome, but, like the mid-set performance from Monica and the too-long artsy videos that segued each thematic act, it impaired the momentum of the show.

It’s gracious of Minaj to cede the spotlight to Monica for a deserved platform than mere opening act, and she indeed sounded flawless on “So Gone” and “Before You Walk Out of My Life” and looked luminous in her floor-length pink coat.

But while her set didn’t siphon attention from Minaj, it did incur a tonal shift.

Still, Minaj is the Queen of Rap for a reason, and she soon reclaimed the stage with her unbridled sass.