Nicki Minaj

‘Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded’

Release date: April 3

Record label: Young Money Entertainment

4 out of 5 decibels

Top Track: Champion feat. Drake, Nas and Young Jeezy

Sounds Like: Willow Smith, Karmin and a female Lil Wayne

Not many artists can pull off having their sassy fictional persona undergo a complete exorcism at the Grammy Awards. But it’s still debatable whether Nicki Minaj even got rid of her alter ego.

As Minaj continues her antics in her latest album, ‘Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded,’ the emcee redefines what it means to be a hip-hop artist.

The Trinidad-born rapper came on the scene in 2007 with her mixtape ‘Playtime is Over.’ She soon caught the attention of rap mogul Lil Wayne, who signed her to Young Money Entertainment in 2009. She rapidly rose to fame with hits like ‘Moment 4 Life’ and ‘Super Bass,’ proving to be both a talented performer and a mainstream artist.

However, her recent dabbles in electronic music raised the question as to whether ‘mainstream’ really means ‘sellout.’

Clearly, Minaj is trying to make money off of her album, but it also has many layers. Like her multiple personalities, three different styles come out in the span of the 22-track ‘Roman Reloaded.’ The first is heavy on the electronic pop side. In songs like ‘Starships’ and ‘Automatic,’ Minaj gives her audience a dose of party music.

These songs have lighthearted subjects and are all about dancing and partying. Minaj focuses so much on singing that she actually sounds like pop singer Karmin. But you can’t expect much more from party songs. She made it a point to make listeners dance and accomplishes that, even if it doesn’t do much for her hip-hop reputation.

Unfortunately, the next tier of tunes are annoying songs – catchy but unnecessary. In songs like infamous ‘Stupid Hoe’ and ‘Beez in the Trap,’ she takes lyrical shots at her haters. But these simple, repetitive tracks have simplistic and repetitive rhymes.

In ‘Beez in the Trap,’ she spits: ‘A hundred motherf***ers can’t tell me nothin‘ / I beez in the trap, be-beez in the trap.’ She drones on like this for too long and the song ends up sounding like an inappropriate version of Willow Smith’s ‘Whip My Hair.’

Luckily, Minaj redeems herself. Plenty of songs have impressive beats and no-gimmick rhymes that feel raw and real. In songs like ‘Champion,’ featuring Drake, Nas and Young Jeezy, it’s refreshing to hear her talk about her struggles in life. This no-nonsense approach is a throwback to her old style.

So she’s not a complete sellout, and listeners need to take into account that Minaj is not your typical rapper. She actually started out as an actress in a Brooklyn performing arts high school, explaining her theatrical performances and need to have split personalities. More importantly, Minaj never claims to be strictly a hip-hop artist.

She even considers herself as an experimental artist. In an interview with Sirius XM Radio’s ‘Sway in the Morning,’ she said: ‘You just gotta realize that I’m never gonna be one-dimensional. … When mainstream got a hold of Nicki Minaj, they turned her into a girl that wears wigs and has funny voices. So then we had to get past that.’

This nostalgic Nicki paints a nice picture, but the girl we had before is not necessarily better than the one we have now. Hits like ‘Champion’ show that Minaj is still capable of producing good music. Although she may sacrifice showing her talent for mainstream hits at times, ‘Roman Reloaded’ satisfies a variety of pleasures. She tackles party songs just as well as straight-up hip-hop ones.

If that makes her a sellout, then so be it.

ieinyang@syr.edu

Published on April 9, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Ibet: ieinyang@syr.edu