Posted by Maura Johnston on 01/30/2011 at 12:00 PM Videos

The Popdust Files: nicki minaj

Last night Nicki Minaj was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, and it seemed to be a mutually beneficial situation for all involved—not only did she perform two tracks from Pink Friday while wearing eye-popping outfits, she appeared in a Digital Short and another skit that seemed inspired by her taste in gravity-defying hairstyles. In this clip, she performs the love song “Right Through Me” while wearing a dress that seems modeled after a layer cake:

Her Digital Short with the Lonely Island (and cult-movie hero John Waters) showed the kids out there how to do a dance called The Creep, although the fashions worn by everyone could as easily be spotted at a Brooklyn loft party as they could in a satirical bit about nerd chic gone wrong:

In another skit, Minaj took her fascination with outrageous hairdos to its logical conclusion, playing a frightwigged, demand-lobbing creation of a mad scientist—who has a particular fetish for posteriors—in Bride of Blackenstein.

She got a little bit of extra mileage out of the black-and-white-wig, bringing it back out and letting a psychedelic jumpsuit fulfill her Technicolor quota while performing “Moment 4 Life”:

[Bride of Blackenstein clip via RapDose; performance clips via Mr. World Premiere]