It's very, very difficult to launch a sustainable, mainstream pop superstar, let alone a semi-niche artist like a solo female rapper with pop crossover appeal, and when acts emerge from the unknown, rocketing into the stratosphere, it's usually the result of a combination of heady, intoxicating 'personality', 'star presence' and, perhaps more importantly, a song so monolithic it convinces people with notoriously short attention spans to stop what they're doing and invest time, money and enthusiasm.
So here we have the Nicki Minaj conundrum: an artist who had and has the hype, hysteria and presence of someone about to break through and establish a pop career before she'd even released any official solo material! Yes, yes, of course there existed Minaj's mixtapes (they helped spread word of-the mouth), but the most widely circulated one, Barbie World, was fanmade and consisted mostly of other people's tracks, with superior (but often short) Nicki 'features'. And therein lies the problem wrapped within the aforementioned conundrum: Nicki Minaj became the world's most famous, well-paid and coveted features-only rap artist.
Because of this, people all over the internet decided to buy into the Incredible Nicki simply based on the fact that she stole the show from every single artist whose song she deigned to appear on, assuming that her solo material would be just as strong. In our esteemed (and potentially wrong opinion) this happened without Minaj even having established a musical identity for herself. That's all fine and dandy but it all hit a snag when the ambitious and audacious lead single from her debut album campaign, "Massive Attack" flopped so hard and fast, even her most ardent fans doubted her potential for chart success. Out of the ashes of that stunning song's floppage rose "Your Love", a leaked, sample-rific, demo slowjam that bizarrely proved to be a hit! Minaj has expressed her surprise, seeing as the song that she wanted to release was largely ignored, and a song she had consigned to the bin of life had turned out to be what people wanted.
So what follows is Pink Friday, a mixed bag debut that sounds (in a semi-Bionic fashion) probably and possibly a million miles away from how the artist originally intended it to. There are more (hit-fishing) samples here, including one you might recognise from The Breakfast Club, and, quite a few midtempos and slowjams with pseudo-inspirational lyrics and messages, but unfortunately the militaristic, pulse-racing tracks that better showcase her verve and skill are largely relegated to bonus tracks. Y'know... that's what iTunes is for, you can always rearrange to your heart's delight, but it would've been nice to have an all-killer-no-filler album released without the need for personal rejigging.
It saddens us to give such a brave and distinctive artist's debut album 3 out of 5, but it also saddens us to watch someone we wholeheartedly endorse, and who is undoubtedly overflowing with talent, release something so... alarmingly unchallenging. Of course "Roman's Revenge", the Eminem collaboration, on which we've previously meditated, is the work's best offering. Frenetic doesn't even begin to describe it, and the barrage of cruel insults from both Roman (Nicki's gay male alter ego) and Slim Shady (Eminem's most famous creation) is genuinely shocking, as the two try to outdo eachother in the realm of nasty. But beyond that there is little to no sonic innovation and even Minaj's clever rhymes can't save some of the material from sounding safe and unadventurous.
And that's the thing - there's a lot of potential here, some absolutely fiery raps, some heartstopping beats and some truly memorable melodies, but they're mixed in with some almost-dross. That doesn't mean you can't enjoy this, and that doesn't mean this doesn't point to a future for Minaj as the world's favourite (and perhaps greatest, depending on how long Missy takes to stage a comeback) female rapper (actually, scratch that... one of the most talented and inventive rappers on the planet, regardless of gender) BUT, in the meantime, you might find yourself slightly underwhelmed by this - an album with multiple personality disorder, that instead of fully committing to different personas, most of the time settles on a unsatisfying middle point between all of them.
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