Each year, Essence Magazine has held its annual Essence Festival. Based in New Orleans, Louisiana, the three-day event has featured a load of activities. From panels featuring some of the hottest celebrities to live performances from the best artists in the industry, the goal of Essence Fest has been to give back to the culture.
Of those in attendance this year, was one of the most influential female rappers of all time– Nicki Minaj. While she’s no rookie to delivering top-notch performances, her act this year was rather interesting. For starters, just moments before she was supposed to be plastered over Hulu singing her greatest hits, the network revealed that they wouldn’t be airing her portion.
View this post on Instagram
Another incident that added to her unique show, was the fact that she seemingly dissed Kanye West. While performing her song “Monster,” the Trinidadian cut it short and stated, “A monster though! A monster though! But we don’t f*ck with clowns.” It wasn’t until after her set was over that people began to put the pieces together, alluding that she was taking shots at Ye.
Nonetheless, although her performance had a few bumps in the road, her crowd was still satisfied. While she had a bunch of fans in front of her cheering her own, her biggest support system was behind stage waiting to greet her.
Video footage captured her husband, Kenny Petty, and her son, whom she refers to as Papa Bear, waiting for her to get off stage. As the family of three began walking out, their child was seen taking off his earphone in an attempt to hear what was going on around him.
Check out the clip below.