Although there has been no shortage of female rappers in 2010, one in particular has had a breakout year. Nicki Minaj went from underground sensation to superstar in a matter of months. Her single "Your Love" was all over the radio this summer, and she recently released her highly anticipated debut album Pink Friday.
Minaj, born Onika Maraj, first lived in Trinidad before moving to Queens, N.Y., where she attended the prestigious Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. Minaj began contributing tracks to various mixtapes in 2004. In doing so, she quickly gained the attention of many hip-hop heavyweights and eventually chose to sign with Lil Wayne's Young Money label in 2009.
Later that year, Minaj released her famous mixtape, Beam Me Up Scotty, which garnered her a reputation for delivering vicious lyrics with a fresh style. The mixtape also revealed Minaj to have a knack for invoking alternative personalities, adding another layer to her already complex persona. The song "I Get Crazy" featuring Lil Wayne got a fair amount of radio play, especially for a mixtape song. In contrast, her album Pink Friday delivers, for the most part, an unexpected pop sound - she sings most of her own hooks using auto-tune. Despite the acerbic rhymes that pervade her lyrics, Minaj has taken it down a notch from her usual intensity.
One of the standout tracks on the album is "Roman's Revenge," which features Eminem and was produced by well-known rap titan Swizz Beatz. The song features the resurrection of Eminem's rap persona, Slim Shady, as he trades verses with Minaj's alter ego, Roman Zolanski. Another remarkable track is the collaboration with fellow Young Money superstar Drake on "Moment 4 Life." Interestingly, the song that doesn't take off - "Fly" - features Rihanna.
Clearly, Minaj has collected a fair amount of famous friends, but not everyone is happy about her rise to rap fame. Fellow New York emcee Lil' Kim has alleged that the song "Roman's Revenge" is directed at her. At a recent club gig, she threatened to "erase [Minaj's] social security number." Kim even put out a diss record called "Black Friday," stating she would "turn Pink Friday to Friday the 13th." Minaj fired back in an interview with Angie Martinez of Hot 97, "You gotta be careful when you pick fights."
Despite her fair share of personal drama, Minaj largely uses Pink Friday to look past the dark side of her persona and fully embraces pop music instead. That is not to say she has tossed aside the hardcore basics of her earlier work, but the record allows Minaj the possibility to explore different facets of her personality in the future. What the future holds for this budding superstar is difficult to pinpoint, but her album proves she is definitely one to watch.
Read More
The best albums of 2014
By Noah Zeidman | December 4, 2014Across genres, it has been a pretty great year in music.
Top 10 movies of 2014
December 4, 2014This has been an excellent year for film, offering everything from gripping blockbusters to innovative personal films.
Iggy Azalea is “Reclassified”
December 4, 2014It has become common practice among music artists to repackage their albums in an effort to simultaneously boost single sales and dish out new content by slightly renaming the album or slapping “Deluxe” onto the title.
