While Nicki Minaj's hairstyle was toned down from her usual fluorescent, skyscraper updo at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards, the singer's performance was anything but ordinary.

"I ain't talking poultry when I say this chicken's fried," Minaj commanded a group of bobbed-hair Barbies -- Minaj's pet name for her fans -- in a chant at the top of the performance. The line is a reported diss at Lil' Kim -- who has repeatedly taken verbal jabs at Minaj for copying her wig-wearing style -- from Minaj's verse on Britney Spears' 'Till the World Ends (Remix.)' The chant was interrupted when a chicken ran across the stage and tore off Minaj's outfit.

Minaj was up for Top Rap Album, Top Rap Artist and Top New Artist at the award show, but left empty-handed. Country-pop crossover Taylor Swift, a fan of the raptress, introduced Minaj noting she is the first female rapper with seven songs on the Billboard Hot 100. Sunday (May 22) evening, Minaj was also the only female rapper nominated in the Top Rap Album and Top Rap Artist categories, among stiff competition like Eminem, Kanye West and her Young Money affiliates Lil Wayne and Drake.

Minaj performed her fifth single, 'Super Bass,' off her Billboard chart-topping debut 'Pink Friday,' before Britney Spears walked onstage to finish up the 'Till the World Ends (Remix)' hinted at earlier. This summer, the two hit the road together on Spears' Femme Fatale tour, kicking off June 16 in Sacramento, Calif.



Watch Nicki Minaj, Britney Spears Perform at the 2011 Billboard Music Awards

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