No one from Queens walked away with a Grammy Award during Sunday night’s show — Queens rapper Nicki Minaj and St. John’s graduate and former Queens Courier employee J. Cole both lost — but Minaj may have turned in the night’s most discussed performance.
The awards were bookended by rappers from Queens. The show opened with host LL Cool J, and closed with an exorcism/performance by the Jamaica-native Minaj.
Channeling her alter ego, Roman Zolanski, the religiously-tinged act opened with a pre-taped skit of a possessed Minaj before her live performance of “Roman Holiday” off her upcoming sophomore album. Prior to the show, the Queens rapper arrived at the award show with someone dressed as the pope. During the performance Minaj spoke in tongues and danced with monks before ending it by levitating high above a stage of shooting flames.
The reaction of blogs and social media following her performance was mostly negative and also confused. Minaj is still trending nationally on Twitter 12 hours after the show.
What did you think of the performance?
