17 September 26 - OctOber 2, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Lady Gag City Nicki Minaj takes Dallas to ‘Gag City’ at American Airlines Center. BY VANESSA QUILANTAN S he can lick it, she can ride it while she’s slippin’ and slidin’. And the super freaky queen of rap can put on a hell of a show. On Tuesday night, Nicki Minaj took over the American Airlines Center during the second U.S. leg of her Pink Fri- day 2 tour. After her May 2024 perfor- mance at the arena on the first leg, when she struggled throughout her set to nurse a sore throat, Minaj put on a strong perfor- mance and commanded the audience with her captivating stage presence. Though there were some lulls in the over- all flow of the stage show, and an 11 p.m. start time kept millennial fans up well past their Tuesday night bedtime, it was all worth it ev- ery time she gave a wink of those bright eyes and a flash of that big pearly white smile. Fans showed up right on time for doors at 8 p.m. and the concourse halls of American Air- lines Center swirled with concertgoers clad in their best pink fashions. Many took advantage of street vendors’ pink light-up cowgirl hat of- ferings, but most didn’t have to because they’d been planning their outfits for months. She has no problem carrying a show on her own, but Nicki Minaj fans (the Barbz, as they’re affectionately known to the world at large) bring a special element of enthusiasm and devotion to the mix. Though they’re rightly known to be an especially vicious on- line fandom who will go to far lengths to de- fend their queen, Nicki fans certainly know how to party. The mood was high, the excitement was palpable and the vibe was convivial. When legendary New York hype man DJ Boof warmed up the crowd and instructed fans to look to their left, then to their right and intro- duce themselves to the people around them, it felt like shaking hands in the congregation pew at the most high-energy church service you could imagine. Everyone in the room was automatically bonded in the thrill of anticipa- tion to see Minaj take the stage. Back-to-back opening sets from Afrobeat artist Skillibeng and the trap-crooning model-slash-rapper BIA did well to get the crowd hyped as they filed into their seats. But third slot opener Tyga really brought the energy up with a set of his biggest hits. Starting with his signature single “Rack City” and running through Chris Brown col- laborations “Ayo,” “Deuces” and “These Hoes Ain’t Loyal,” Tyga had the audience singing along word for word. But the high point of Tyga’s set was the blast-from-the- past “Bedrock,” the Young Money ensemble record that harkened back to the early days of both his and Minaj’s entry point into the mainstream music world. DJ Boof followed Tyga and kept the room on its feet with singalongs of millennial-era radio rap favorites from the likes of Soulja Boy and Keyshia Cole. (There’s nothing like the sound of thousands of people belting out the latter’s modern-classic R&B ballad “Love” in unison.) Boof proved his chops as a veteran audi- ence-mover, leading crowd games like the swag surf and a full wave from one side of the arena to the other. But attendees erupted in applause when he brought out Dallas’ own Dorrough for “Walk That Walk,” “Get Big,” and “Ice Cream Paint Job.” The local anthems were the perfect addition to the evening’s pre-game. After DJ Boof’s 40-minute set, the wait- ing game began. The crowd stalled with their faces in their phones for about a half hour before Nicki Minaj took the stage at 11 p.m. As the lights came down, the stage lit up with the image of a digitally rendered 3D likeness of Minaj helming a 757-size pink airliner and puffing a huge spliff. “This is your captain speaking,” her voice rang out over the venue, announcing an impending touchdown in Dallas. The view of the plane descending from puffy pink clouds upon neon skyscrapers amid a sugary sweet surrealist urban landscape evoked the magic of Gag City, the fictional set- ting where Minaj’s Pink Friday 2 album lives. It’s a futuristic girly-pop world of glitz and glam — home to the Barbz of past, present and future. It’s Tokyo-inspired, but drenched in femme fantasy for the fanbase that’s granted the queen of rap the highest-grossing tour rev- enue of her 17-year music career. Minaj started her set strong to uproarious applause. In a fire-red bob wig and a match- ing body suit that glowed green in the dark, she took the crowd through recent cuts “FTCU,” “Barbie Dangerous” and “Beep Beep.” The audience shouted along with her to the words, “High heels on my tippys, Dolce & Gabbana that’s on my titties!” But after about four songs, Minaj left the stage for a costume and set change that lasted a little over three minutes. This was a recurring pattern through the first two acts of the show, cut with five different interlude pauses that felt too long to keep the eve- ning’s flow consistent. Through the first hour of her performance, Minaj spent nearly half the time offstage. Her looks were incredible, and she looked absolutely stunning after each break. But the visual packages during these pauses were not compelling enough to keep fans from sitting back down to check their phones, or head up and down the stairs for runs back and forth to the bathroom or the bar. The stop-and-start format did a disser- vice to what should have been a more im- mersive experience into the world-building that went into Gag City. High points of the set included a back-to- back powerhouse segment of “Barbie Girl” (the rework of Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” pro- duced for the soundtrack of the Barbie movie), “Roman’s Revenge” and her iconic career-making verse from (the artist for- merly known as) Kanye West’s 2010 track “Monster” (a one-in-a-million live music ex- perience for any true hip-hop heads who came of age during the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album cycle). Act Two ended with a powerful collec- tion of Minaj’s beloved rap ballads — her sin- gular style of elegant R&B/pop fusion melodies and romantic hooks strung to- gether by her incomparable rap prowess. It’s an approach to songwriting that she blazed a trail for from the beginning of her career, executed beautifully and doesn’t get enough credit for originating. Donning a gorgeous pink gown, Minaj cooed and smiled at her adoring fans through hits “Fallin 4 U” and “Right Through Me.” The third act ran about 40 minutes with- out interludes, and closed out the show with a lively marathon of back-to-back bangers “Super Freaky Girl,” “Anaconda,” “Star- ships” and “Super Bass.” Minaj brought out her openers to perform the remix of “Whole Lotta Money” with BIA, a shortened cut with Skillibeng and a throwback to the 2009 Young Money single “Roger That” with Tyga. Minaj ended her set with a rendition of “Moment 4 Life” that brought tears to the eyes of many attendees, and gave goodbyes on an energetic note to the bass-bumping “Everybody,” the up-tempo Pink Friday 2 track sampling Junior Senior’s 2002 dance- floor staple, “Move Your Feet.” Despite the lulls, Nicki Minaj lit up American Airlines Center with her joyful charisma, cheeky sex appeal and playful spirit. She may be controversial at times with searing social media rants, public over- shares and loudly divisive opinions — but artists are supposed to be eccentric. That’s something we’ve forgotten as a culture in the age of internet respectability politics, where celebrities are so afraid to make waves and face blowback that it actually makes them terribly boring. Nicki Minaj says herself of the overly sanitized climate of public persona and in- ternet fan engagement on her hit single, “Chun-Li”: “They need rappers like me / So they can get on their fucking keyboards / And make me the bad guy.” And she proved without a doubt last night at American Air- lines that pop culture absolutely needs en- tertainers like her. ▼ CONCERTS WHOA, NELLY FORT WORTH MUSIC FESTIVAL CANCELED FOLLOWING BACKLASH OVER ‘WORST LINEUP EVER’. BY CARLY MAY GRAVLEY G ordy’s HWY 30 Music Festival, a country music gathering that origi- nated in Idaho before debuting in Fort Worth last October, made a splashy first impression with its all-star lineup and fam- ily-friendly atmosphere. Many attendees went so far as to pur- chase 2024 passes before the first weekend had even concluded, already itching to repli- cate the experience they were having. Shelby Holteen was one such fan. “Last year was a blast,” Holteen says. “They had huge, current names including Zach Bryan, Koe Wetzel and Dierks Bentley.” The lower-billed acts such as Staind, The Brothers Osborne, Ashley McBryde and Colbie Caillet were notable in their own right and rounded out an eclectic, crowd- pleasing mix of country and rock subgenres. Returning fans were expecting more of the same from 2024’s event, which was scheduled to take place at Texas Motor Speedway the weekend of Oct. 17. The event was canceled on Monday following backlash to what many called “the worst lineup ever.” Leading up to the big reveal, the festival’s social media teased 2024 attendees (many of whom, like Holteen, had purchased passes in advance) by asking who they’d like to see perform. Coming off the star-powered 2023 event, fans shot for the moon in the com- ments section. “They had hundreds of comments rang- ing from huge headliner names to small lo- cal artists,” Holteen says. “But to my knowledge and recollection, none of the art- ists they announced this year were among the recommendations.” After months of delays, including festival founder Gordy Schroeder having a heart at- tack, the lineup finally dropped on Vanessa Quilantan Behold, Nicki Minaj’s Gag City. The super freaky queen of rap put on a hell of a show. ▼ Music >> p18
