Remember when hip-hop was supposedly a man’s game? Throughout its history, the genre has indeed been a male-dominated space. But gazing across the current landscape, a renaissance is clearly underway, with women like Megan Thee Stallion, Doja Cat and Ice Spice standing as some of hip-hop’s biggest new stars.

Nicki Minaj, an artist who came up alongside Drake as part of Lil Wayne’s Young Money Records, has achieved many firsts for female rappers. Since releasing her debut “Pink Friday” in 2010, Minaj has helped pave the bridge between the days when labels and crews made room for one (and only one) woman in their ranks and the recent wave of dominant female stars.

With a strong new album “Pink Friday 2” that produced the first chart-topping single for a solo female rap artist in more than two decades — the Rick James-sampling “Super Freaky Girl” — Minaj made her long-awaited return to Seattle for her first show since 2012. Playing to an amped sold-out crowd in Climate Pledge Arena the same night Hollywood gathered in Los Angeles for the Academy Awards, Minaj’s Emerald City return ran longer than an Oscars ceremony and featured even more Barbie-themed songs.

After waiting 12 years to see the so-called Queen of Rap (a crown we certainly will not challenge), Washington “Barbz,” as her fan base is known, waited a little longer on Sunday as Minaj took the stage at 10:15 p.m., more than two hours after the listed start time. (For what it’s worth, she hit the stage around the same time during her previous show in Las Vegas.)

It seemed all was forgiven by the time a statuesque Minaj emerged at the top of her three-tiered stage, standing like a Barbie in a display box, unflinchingly knocking out “I’m the Best” and the newer “Barbie Dangerous” as the crowd — dressed in pink at her majesty’s request — collectively lost it. Minaj kept her loopy bars in the newer “FTCU” on a tight leash, yanking her cadences tightly for effect over the twirling beat.

Throughout her set, there were moments of pure mastery. Minaj was fierce and commanding, harnessing the screw-loose cadences of her show-stealing verse on Kanye West’s “Monster” — the classic posse cut with Jay-Z and Rick Ross that announced her arrival to the broader rap world. It still stands as one of the most quintessential rap verses of the last 15 years.

ADVERTISINGSkip AdSkip AdSkip Ad

For all the top-of-her-game moments like those on Sunday night, there were just as many (if not more) instances when Minaj seemed to be in early-tour mode, yielding too many of her bars to crowd singalongs or simply missing them altogether, despite several teleprompters on the stage. Returning from a wardrobe change for “Barbie World” — a collaboration with Ice Spice off the “Barbie” soundtrack directly connecting Minaj’s trailblazing legacy with one of contemporary rap’s new leading women — the stage crew wheeled Minaj in what looked like a futuristic phone booth late into the song as Minaj seemed to make a half-committed attempt at her vocals; that or she was dealing with mic issues.

While some of the set design and choreography was truly striking, a few of wardrobe/set changes came just two or three abbreviated songs apart, slowing some of the momentum like an extra commercial break.

Rap star Nicki Minaj, seen here in Oakland, played a sold-out concert at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle on Sunday. (Kevin Mazur / WireImage for Live Nation)

One factor in Minaj’s later-than-usual start for a headlining set (at least at Climate Pledge Arena) is the Pink Friday 2 World Tour’s unconventional format. Instead of playing a traditional opening slot, supporting act Monica delivered a knockout six-song performance in the middle of Minaj’s set — a classy, reverential move to the ‘90s R&B great whom Minaj admired growing up.

After Monica’s commanding run, surprise guest Tyga kept the halftime party rolling with a short set of his own, including his signature 2011 hit “Rack City,” occasionally changing the lyrics to “Gag City” in reference to the pink-hued metropolis gracing the “Pink Friday 2” album cover.

Thirteen minutes after Tyga left the stage, a re-energized Minaj returned for an explosive closing run, led by “Super Freaky Girl” and the Sir Mix-A-Lot sampling “Anaconda” — a crunchy highlight that predictably set a Seattle crowd ablaze.

Airing some of her biggest crossover pop songs at the end, the audio confetti of 2012’s EDM-fueled “Starships” and her new Lil Uzi Vert-assisted “Everybody” made for an appropriately giddy send-off.

“Before we go,” Minaj began before her closing song, “I’d like to say, Seattle, you were everything I dreamed.”

For all the high points Sunday, we could’ve dreamed a little bigger for one of the most important women in modern hip-hop.

Michael Rietmulder: mrietmulder@seattletimes.com; Michael Rietmulder is The Seattle Times music writer.