Album Review - Nicki Minaj: Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded

Nicki Minaj
Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded
Rating: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

Nicki Minaj is just too weird and too strange to be placed within a structured pop environment. Her guest turns on others' tracks have usually been the best representation of her talents; her wild abandon such a breath of fresh of air in an otherwise staid room. When she tries to reign in those wild impulses is when she tends to falter. Her debut album Pink Friday, which should have been an unqualified triumph, was a middling work, hemmed in by too many drab/bland R&B ballads and did not feature enough of her bizarre personality. She's kept up though, mostly through several more guest spots, and a crossover single "Super Bass," which was the perfect mix of a great hook and her goofy attitude. Does Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded fix the errant problems of her debut, or does it provide more of the same? For half of the record, you almost think Minaj is on par with equalling the genre busting albums from Missy Elliot, laying down track after track of mind-boggling weird hip-hop. But then she begins to lose her nerve. Perhaps emboldened by the success of "Super Bass," the album gets mired in its back half with too many safe, pop songs, that find her being thrown into the same big pot as Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and Ke$ha.

But for a brief instant you hear what could have been. "Roman Holiday" is a schizophrenic hyper electro-hip-hop track, with Minaj adopting a strange Cockney accent and spitting out rhymes over a frenetic bass heavy beat.



The album reaches its peak of outright cracktastic brilliance on "Come On A Cone" which has Minaj smack talking all her detractors, before the song drops out and she starts singing like she's a finalist on The Voice, bringing hilarious gravitas to the line "Put my dick in your face," while the songs revs up again with whiplash inducing beats and rhymes.



On "I Am Your Leader," Minaj keeps up with and surpasses rhymes from Cam'ron and Rick Ross, flashing more attitude than her pint-size would seem to allow, riding strong over a pounding bassline.



"Beez In The Trap" is a bass rattling schoolyard taunt that should be Minaj's bread and butter by now.



"HOV Lane" is a caffeinated blur of synth stabs and burbly electronics; Minaj outpacing her nearest competition.



"Roman Reloaded (with Lil Wayne)" is all heavy boasting over gunshot beats, Minaj silencing all her detractors.



And rounding off one of the best opening salvos in recent history, the first half of the record ends with the midtempo track "Champion (ft. Nas, Drake, & Young Jeezy)," which hits all the right somber notes and should have been the gateway to back-half brilliance.



The back-half of Roman Reloaded finds Nicki in the same quandary she was in for the last album; how to keep her individual personality while still maintaining enough mainstream appeal. What bogged down Pink Friday was the over-reliance on drab, treacly ballads and pop songs that just didn't seem like her, and also tried to push her singing voice over her rapping, which, while her voice is serviceable, it is not strong enough to carry an entire album. Here, again, the second half of the record dissolves into a fizzy mix of collaborations, the dreadful Chris Brown duet "Right By My Side," and silly "Sex In The Lounge" with Lil Wayne, or a bevy of Top 40 aiming pop confections. New single "Starships" has the Lady Gaga collaborator RedOne adding a sugar bomb beat and raved up synths which all but buries Minaj under the mix. No doubt it is completely catchy but any D-list diva could sing it and make it a hit.



And it continues with "Pound The Alarm" which sounds like the latest Ibiza summer anthem, overwhelming Minaj under a phalanx of laser sharp synths.



The album continues its avalanche of club-ready tracks, losing Minaj in the swirl of four on the floor beats, swirling cotton candy synths, and banal party lyrics. From the pounding "Whip It," girly-girl diva lite antics "Automatic," and dark electro-house track "Beautiful Sinner" which sounds like a Rihanna reject and completely renders Minaj nameless.



And that is the most telling part of this half of the record, that it the tracks are so indistinct that any vocalist could do them with a little tweaking. "Marilyn Monroe" could easily be an Rihanna track with booming drums, strings, and understated vocals,



"Fire Burns" has Kelly Clarkson written all over it,



and "Young Forever," with a little more skeeze could make Ke$ha salivate.



But I want to reiterate that these tracks are all catchy and memorable, but more so for the production values and not from Minaj. She gets lost in all the high-end studio tricks and sheen, that you forget you are listening to a Nicki Minaj record. It is not until the final track, the so bad it's brilliant "Stupid Hoe," where Minaj returns and snaps you back to attention.



There is no doubt that Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded will be a huge hit; it has already knocked Madonna's new album MDNA out of the Number 1 spot on the charts. But like that album, this record also seems to be holding back from being something special, too scared to truly go out on a limb. Which is what is ultimately disappointing about the album is that the balls to the wall first half, which can do no wrong, is thrown under the bus by the second half, which hides Minaj's personality far beneath all the high-tech studio wizardry until she becomes another nameless/faceless pop diva. I have hopes Minaj realizes that her gifts lie in going for broke and avoiding the cookie-cutter pop mentality. So far, she is halfway there. So close, yet somehow so far.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.