Nicki Minaj - Pink Friday

Tagline: 'Long as you know / long as you know / long as you mothafucka know / I'm the b b b b b b best'

Nicki Minaj is without a single doubt one of the most ambitious new-comers of the past years. And whether it was for her her musical stylings, her extravant image or some controversial day-time television appearance (naughty Regis, you can look but you can't touch - and you certainly can't make allusions to having sex with her) Minaj - Part Barbie-doll, part rapper, has definately been the talk of the town for a while now.  Now technically her debut album Pink Friday was released November 19 of last year, almost two months before this blog even came into existence. So, that being the case, I'm considering it an excellent opportunity for my first official retrospective for one of the most anticipated albums lately.

Minaj worked her way up through countless features for other artists garnering not only attention but also ciritical acclaim. She single-handedly saved Diddy-Dirty Money's ('Hello, Good Morning') or Christina Aguilera ('Woohoo') from total mediocrity. She excelled on Kanye West's 'Monster' displaying not one, but two equally fierce personalities. Alas, despite the promising signs, her solo debut Pink Friday ended up being a fairly watered down decoction of the fiercely roaring Nicki Minaj we (certainly I) had come to love over the past year. The album takes of on the right foot though. After all, opener 'I'm The Best' contains a clear shout-out to the world: it wasn't easy, but I'm here, I'm the best and I'm not leaving. The songs might lack a bit in execution (is that Lil' Wayne's touch?) but epitomizes what Minaj is all about: 'I'm the best bitch doing it'. Track two 'Roman's Revenge' is so tensed, so raw and so angry it's almost scary - and granted, that is in part due to Eminem, who shows that he still can. With 'Did It On 'Em' Pink Friday reaches its peak. This is the Nicki Minaj that should have had a more prominent role on the album: spewing profanity à la Lil' Kim and more fierce than Tyra motha-fuckin' Banks.

After that however, most of the good intentions go down the drain and make place for a few crowd-pleasing pop tracks. 'Right Thru Me' is about as safe as an R&B song can get and neither Rihanna-song 'Fly', nor 'Save Me' can avoid lyrical and musical mediocrity. After all, selling records is also a reality, even for the best bitches. And alongside many other things, Nicki Minaj is also the artist that staged a hectic arrival where she was swarmed by fans at Heathrow airport in order to boost sales in the UK (her entourage leaked the information about her arrival to make sure that it wouldn't go unnoticed). After those three songs 'Moment 4 Life' (with Drake) and 'Blazin'' (with Kanye West) bring some solace, but the tone has been set by now. And about halfway the record reaches an absolute low, with thanks to Will.i.am, a man whose musical musical creativity shriveled up and died many years ago, as he extensively proved on the past two Black Eyed Peas albums. The result is the mindblowingly comatose 'Check It Out', a veritable abomination built around an obscenely gratuitous Buggles-sample. Commercially successful, it has to be one of the stupidest, most useless musical conceptions in recent history. If Will.i.am has even an ounce of inspiration left in him, he is definately hiding it well. First single 'Your Love' and Natasha Bedingfield duet 'Last Chance' (really, Natasha fucking Bedingfield?) make for a pretty numb conclusion to a pretty safe album.

Pink Friday is - in one word - a let-down. Not because it is a bad album per se, because it's not. But because it stays far below expectations, stearing clear from most anything that could be considered to be too off-centre to appeal to the broad, mainstream crowd it is so obviously intended for. Which kind of brings me back to the opening track of the album. As a whole this album is not all that it could be. The general idea is in there somewhere, and the talent is there as well, but the execution is all too often lacking and once too often the safe road is chosen over an edgier alternative. Just like 'I'm The best' says one thing lyrically, with the music simulaneously screaming the opposite. Still two stars for Pink Friday, for its - sadly too few - great moments and mainly for Nicki Minaj herself, who - even when she's not in ful throttle - sets herself apart from all the others through her personality, flow and lyrics (she can write). Two stars: not nearly enough to cover her full potential, but perhaps already a bit generous for what she  ultimately put on the table.

Tracklist
1. I'm The Best
2. Roman's Revenge (ft. Eminem)
3. Did It On 'Em
4. Right Thru Me
5. Fly (ft. Rihanna)
6. Save Me
7. Moment 4 Life (ft. Drake)
8. Check It Out (ft. Will.i.am)
9. Blazin (ft. Kanye West)
10. Here I Am
11. Dear Old Nicki
12. Your Love
13. Last Chance (ft. Natasha Bedingfield)