Nicki Minaj served as musical guest for the Saturday Night Live‘s Season 43 finale, with the rapper delivering a pair of performances and co-starring in an unaired musical sketch.
The rapper opened the proceedings with an energetic, well-choreographed rendition of “Chun-Li,” one of the first singles off Minaj’s upcoming album Queen. However, the stylized performance – which featured chopsticks in Minaj’s hair, a Chinese pavilion and Asian dancers – promptly faced accusations of cultural appropriation on social media.
Instead of delivering her single “Barbie Tingz” or debuting a new track from Queen, which arrives June 15th, Minaj used her second performance of the night to spotlight Playboi Carti and his “Poke It Out,” the Minaj-featuring track off the emerging Atlanta rapper’s new album Die Lit:
Minaj also appeared in a “Cut for Time” prerecorded “Friendship Song” sketch that co-starred Tina Fey, Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant as a Haim-like band/group of friends that admittedly pick themselves up by making fun of others.
The rapper turns up midway through the sketch to criticize a co-worker that wronged McKinnon. “I’ll rip up her life, yo get the knife / Because you’re low-key my wife, you’re my bitch for life,” Minaj rapped in her cameo. “You’re a 10, she a 2, life sucks for her / Let’s punch her in her face and take her jewels / It’s May, we don’t play with them April fools.”
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