After her spirited set during Wednesday's opening night of Lil Wayne's I Am Still Music Tour in Rhode Island, it's hard to imagine Nicki Minaj ever getting butterflies onstage.
According to the Young Money queen, the performance was a far cry from her humble beginnings onstage when she used to perform mixtape cuts alongside Wayne. For starters, she was far less jittery. "It's funny, because I remember coming on, doing 30 seconds of 'Can't Stop, Won't Stop' [from Lil Wayne's Da Drought 3]," Nicki recalled to MTV News. "I was nervous for 30 seconds, and then when I came back [on tour], I was doing three minutes. Now to have my own set, it's crazy!"
After the show, the Queens lyricist spoke about finally performing a full set of her own songs. "It's the first time I get to show me: my theatrics, my craziness, my sense of humor. A lot of times when I was doing features, I didn't feel that it was my place to kinda interject certain things. I don't wanna be rude to anyone's set."
On Wednesday, Nicki seized the opportunity, as she emerged from underneath the stage to begin her 30-minute slot. The rap bombshell thrilled fans as she ran through songs like "Roman's Revenge," "Right Thru Me" and the current single from her Pink Friday debut, "Moment 4 Life." She even gave a male fan a lap dance while Sean Kingston's "Letting Go" played through the venue's speakers.
Even with all the excitement, Nicki promised that the show will only get better as the tour goes on. "It was exhilarating," she said. "This is actually the first show, so what you saw tonight is nothing close to what the show is going to be."
