‘Saturday Night Live’ Fans Flood Twitter During Nicki Minaj Performance

Nicki Minaj brought the house down with her Saturday Night Live season finale performances.

The rapper brought her unique style to the long-running variety sketch series’ stage for the third time in her career, proving once again why she is the reigning Queen of Rap.

Minaj made the first televised performance of hit single “Chun-Li” off of her upcoming studio album. For her second performance, Minaj was joined by Playboi Carti for a performance of “Poke It Out.”

Saturday Night Live viewers were loving Minaj’s performances, praising the rapper and her creative set.

Not everyone was a fan of the “Chun-Li” performance, however, as some Twitter users took issue with Minaj’s cultural appropriation with her choice of outfit.

Fans of the rapper are counting down the days until the 35-year-old releases her latest album, Queen, on June 15. The Saturday Night Live appearance marks the beginning of her album rollout.

Minaj had previously teased the possibility of presenting new music during her set but has since recanted her statements. Answering fan questions during the week prior to the appearance, Minaj revealed she would be performing “Chun-Li” but could have some surprises in store regarding the upcoming album.

The rapper released the first two singles off Queen on April 12, setting the stage for the album release. She revealed the title of her album, Queen, during a red carpet interview at the Met Gala.

When asked if fans would be getting any sort of surprises, Nicki replied on Twitter with a vague response that a change of plans due to technical issued may have squashed any hope of new music.

“[To be honest], that was the original plan. But we had to change it due to some technical stuff out of my control. But trust the process. It’ll end up benefiting u guys more in the long run [with] the new plan. You trust me,” she wrote.

Minaj joined Saturday Night Live alum Tina Fey for the season 43 finale of the series.

Fey celebrated her sixth hosting gig on the show, for which she once served as head writer and anchor of “Weekend Update.” According to Variety, she was hired as a writer in 1997 and promoted to head writer two years later. She handled “Weekend Update” duties from 2000-2006.

Fey then went on to create and star in NBC hit series 30 Rock after the end of her Saturday Night Live tenure. She currently works behind the scenes, and has made a few appearances on Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and NBC’s recently canceled series Great News, and she also opened her first Broadway musical, an adaptation of her 2004 movie, Mean Girls.

Saturday Night Live will return for its 44th season in fall 2018 on NBC.