Nicki Minaj is the recipient of this year’s Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the MTV Video Music Awards. On Sunday night, as has become customary for honorees of the award, she did a career-spanning medley of some of her hits during the broadcast. Included in the performance were bits of “All Things Go,” “Roman’s Revenge,” her verse on “Monster,” “Beez In The Trap,” “Chun-Li,” “Moment 4 Life,” “Super Bass,” “Anaconda,” and her recent single “Super Freaky Girl.”

Members of her fan army (The Barbz) presented the award to the rapper onstage. “I never, ever in my life have written a speech and today I jotted something down on my phone and I gave my phone to Joe and he’s not up here with it because now I don’t remember stuff,” Minaj started off.

After retrieving her phone, she went on to thank a whole list of people, including those that inspired her flow (among them Lil Wayne, Lauryn Hill, Foxy Brown, Jay-Z, Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh) and those that helped her during her career: Kanye West, Beyonce, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, Rihanna. “I have to thank Drizzy for always saying the things I need to hear to get me back in the game,” she said specifically to Drake.

“I wish that Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson were here,” Minaj continued. “I wish that people understood what they meant and what they were going through. I wish people took mental health seriously — even for the people who you think have perfect lives. I wish Pop Smoke and Juice WRLD and Nipsey Hussle were here.”

Minaj was also nominated this year for Song Of The Summer (“Super Freaky Girl”) and Best Hip Hop (“Do We Have A Problem?”). Last week, “Super Freaky Girl” became the first song by a solo female rapper to debut at #1 since 1998.

The Video Vanguard Award was not given out in 2020 or 2021. The last artist to receive the award was Missy Elliott in 2019.

Watch the performance and speech below.

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