As its title suggests, Nicki Minaj‘s fifth album is a sequel to her exuberant 2010 debut ‘Pink Friday’. At occasions, she makes the connection clear: ‘Pink Friday Women’, a pop-rap banger that samples Cyndi Lauper‘s ’80s anthem ‘Women Simply Wanna Have Enjoyable’, is so eager to recapture the giddy magic of ‘Tremendous Bass’ that it name-checks the ‘Pink Friday’ hit. And when she raps “tried to play me however I shitted on ’em first” on ‘My Life’, it’s an unambiguous nod to ‘Did It On’em’, a scatalogical banger from that debut.
This time, although, Minaj raps about excremental revenge over a high-end pattern from Blondie’s ‘Coronary heart Of Glass’ – a reminder that she is now a serious participant, not the industrious upstart who stole the present on Kanye West‘s ‘Monster’. Minaj additionally underlines her “queen of rap” standing with a brace of ferocious brag tracks. When she raps “I don’t fuck with horses since Christopher Reeves” on ‘Crimson Ruby Da Sleeze’, it’s not only a crass reference to the using damage that left the Superman actor paralysed from the neck down, but additionally, presumably, a dismissal of a rap rival with an equine-themed identify. A catty rhetorical query on the identical observe – “All them botched face photographs, why would you put up these?” – could possibly be aimed toward any variety of tweakment-loving friends.
‘Pink Friday 2’ additionally incorporates celebrations of Minaj’s sexual prowess: a line about “vanilla ice cream comin’ down my ass cheeks” on ‘Pink Birthday’ has nothing to do with Häagen-Dazs. However what makes this album actually compelling are extra susceptible moments like ‘Final Time I Noticed You’, a pop-R&B gem on which she grapples along with her father’s dying, and the reggae-flecked album nearer ‘Simply the Recollections’. “I ‘member after I was the lady that everyone doubted / when each label turned me down, after which they laughed about it,” Minaj raps. It’s a welcome reminder that her rise wasn’t with out setbacks.
On the identical observe, she thanks her early collaborators Drake and Lil Wayne, each of whom make visitor appearances elsewhere on the album. So, too, do Future, J.Cole and an uncredited SZA, who provides a voice memo that opens the dancehall-flavoured ‘Needle’. Billie Eilish pops up too, courtesy of a sped-up pattern from her 2018 single ‘When The Celebration’s Over’ that Minaj weaves into ‘Are You Gone Already?’ “You by no means obtained to satisfy Papa,” Minaj raps regretfully, addressing her younger son who arrived shortly earlier than her father was killed in a 2021 hit-and-run accident.
Comprising 22 tracks that unfold over 70 minutes, ‘Pink Friday 2’ might be too lengthy, however Minaj paces it sharply. The primary half pings between lean, imply hip-hop tracks and melancholy midtempos, whereas the second half incorporates a smattering of pop-rap cuts together with the Rick James-sampling ‘Tremendous Freaky Woman’. Minaj’s capability to impose herself on an immediately acquainted pattern additionally drives ‘All people’, a frantic banger constructed on Junior Senior’s 2002 novelty hit ‘Transfer Your Physique’. It’s the quirkiest second on an album the place Minaj is usually extra restrained than prior to now. Right here, she doesn’t mess around with alter-egos fairly as freely as on ‘Pink Friday’.
In any other case, although, ‘Pink Friday 2’ looks like a consolidation and refinement of the whole lot Minaj can do – together with dropping popular culture references that no different artist would consider. “Ducking ’em like Björk?” That’s certainly a wink to the Icelandic musician’s notorious skirmish with a photographer. 13 years after ‘Pink Friday’, Nicki Minaj hasn’t misplaced her capability to catch us unexpectedly.
Particulars
- Launch date: December 8, 2023
- File label: Republic Information
