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“Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded” by Nicki Minaj
Released: April 3 by Cash Money Records
Stars out of Five: Four
Why: Nicki Minaj, in herself, is a giant brain fuck. Is she trying too hard to be over-the-top, or is she actually just insane and awesome? Regardless, it’s kind of impossible to be indifferent. I appreciate Nicki Minaj’s electrifying energy, even if I often feel like her music is melting my brain. When the album’s first track boomed to life with her fake British accent and nasty, in-your-face rap that made her famous, I was pretty into it, not surprisingly. The remaining first half of the album continued in this signature style, but about halfway through, the album turned almost entirely radio-appropriate pop. Wait ... what?
Normally, I’m the first one to criticize an album for not having a “cohesive” sound, and maybe I’m just about to say this because my brain is still melted from the first half of the album — but I didn’t hate the total direction change. Nicki’s whole thing is that she does what she wants. If she wants to pull out a dildo on stage at a concert, she does it and somehow manages to do it well. Roman, Nicki’s alter ego, is supposed to be the crazy inside her, right? So we all expected “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded” to be varying shades of insanity. Although the tracks toward the second half of the album didn’t melt my brain in the same way the first half did, almost every track was packed with that Nicki Minaj energy that always quickens my pulse. The second half of the album definitely wasn’t what people were expecting, and, in some cases, wasn’t what people wanted, but she gave it to ‘em anyway. Just another brain fuck courtesy of Nicki Minaj.
Listens before you get in to it: Regardless of whether you’re a pop princess or a scowling bad bitch, listen to it a couple times all the way through before restricting yourself to one half of the album.
Favorite tracks: Track 2, “Come On a Cone”; Track 4, “Beez In The Trap”; Track 10, “Starships” and Track 12, “Whip It.”
Favorite lyrics: “Cause my ice is so cold it should come on a cone” and “Put ya cape on/ you a super ho”
Listen to this album: The next time you’re on a boring road trip with your parents. Insist that you can’t listen to it on your iPod, but that it needs to be played from the car stereo. Watch your mom’s eyes bulge out of her head every time Nicki talks about dicks, which is pretty often. You may have been bored, but not anymore. Watching your parent’s reaction to “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded” will provide a little more than 60 minutes of pure entertainment. If you’re really lucky, you may discover your nerdy dad humming “Stupid Hoe” a few days later when you’re lounging on the beach; dare to dream.
Contact Brittany Hill at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
