Nicki Minaj Performance @ 2022 VMAs

[StrawberryBlond 14,268]

Well, that was underwhelming. First off, that outfit is terrible. There's nothing wrong with her body but pregnancy has clearly caused her body to look a lot differently to how it used to and these kinds of outfits just make her look like she's trying to look younger and simply don't do this shape justice, something figure-hugging would be so much better and what's with the black boots? They should've been pink to match. And the selection of songs were far too short in parts. There was basically no point of putting in All Things Go as there was about one line from it, Monster isn't even her song and she didn't even do the whole verse (the tied-up woman was quite an uncomfortable sight as well). The other songs were also not the best selection and she wasn't even on-stage for Anaconda, probably her most iconic song. For Super Freaky Girl, she wasn't even singing at the beginning, which totally seems to fly in the face of all rappers performing completely live (something she's been criticised for in the past but clearly hasn't learned from). The whole unnecessarily vulgar thing with the pole and having those 2 guys simulating DPing her was just so off-putting to see, especially considering that she should be above such basic shock shenanigans now. She said she didn't want to write anything sexual when she was pregnant but now it seems it's all about putting out what sells.

Overall, this is a performer who is no longer at their peak, not that Nicki was ever a top tier performer anyway. She's running out of breath when rapping, isn't even trying to dance, just feels like she's going through the motions. I think the audience was clapping out of nostalgia more than anything else. If this was a new performer, I have a feeling reactions would have been far more muted.

[insight 2,428]

i wanted to write that the bar has been set so low, but realized there's no bar these days