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about. For women who aspire to rap stardom, there seem to be only two accepted industry paths. They can follow Lauryn Hill, the iconic ex-Fugees emcee that emphasized achingly soulful vocals and an earthy persona on 1998's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Or they can follow Lil' Kim. The "first lady" of Diddy's Bad Boy camp and the Notorious B.I.G.'s Junior M.A.F.I.A. crew, her 1996 album Hard Core established her as a thug mistress that performed acrobatic tricks in the bedroom. A big personality of Pamela Anderson proportions, Lil' Kim's raw sexuality casts a shadow over any woman who strives for acceptance as a hip-hop artist.
One woman trying to establish her own identity is Nicki Minaj. She hails from Jamaica Queens, New York, and that fact alone makes her remarkable. New York hasn't produced a rap artist with gold and platinum appeal since 2003, when 50 Cent smashed the game with Get Rich or Die Tryin'. The current track record for female emcees is worse, a veritable trail of tears that begins after Eve, the last woman to achieve legitimate rap stardom (via her 1999 debut Let There Be Eve: Ruff Ryders' First Lady). (Did you say M.I.A.? Sure, OK.) Add her association with Lil Wayne, and there are plenty of reasons why Nicki Minaj stands out. She has landed on numerous magazine covers, been recruited by Christina Aguilera and Usher for guest spots, and regularly appears on urban gossip websites -- all before she has even scored a hit single.
However, Minaj's success has mostly been by proxy, from a hot verse on Ludacris' "My Chick Bad" to ensemble gigs for We Are Young Money.
While the rest of the music industry reverts to a small-ball model, collecting modest SoundScan and iTunes sales and hoping that fans show up to the concerts; the rap world continues to party like it's 2000, spending years and millions of dollars to promote rookie acts so that when their albums finally drop, all the hype will result in career-establishing debuts. Lil Wayne signed Minaj to his Young Money Entertainment production company in 2007. It's a long shot that her first solo album will drop this year, and if it arrives in 2011 it will conclude a stunningly long four years of incubatory development.
On her first major mixtape, 2007's Playtime Is Over, Minaj offered traditional Rotten Apple grime. "If a bird try to get out of the cage/ One b*tch down, New York Times front page," she rapped on "Wuchoo Know," referencing Eazy-E's "Boyz-N-the-Hood." Lil Wayne made only a brief appearance on Playtime Is Over, but his presence loomed over 2008's Sucka Free. Both she and Lil Wayne dropped attention-grabbing hints of a romantic relationship, driving gossips to speculate that the two were lovers. And hey, maybe they were (or are). Minaj continued to up the ante: by 2009's Beam Me Up Scotty, she asserted that she was rabidly bisexual. "I'm Minaj/ I a-am Nicki Minaj/ And if you want a ménage/ Keep a couple pretty broads," she advised on "Slumber Party." (In contrast, she frequently punctuated Playtime Is Over's raps with the phrase "no homo.")
Some critics have praised Nicki Minaj for her wacky personality shifts, but it's a narrow kind of role-playing. After all, men love a girl that will "go both ways." She's pushed the sex angle hard, from explicit punany talk on her mixtape cuts to replicating Lil' Kim's infamous spread-eagle pose for Sucka Free's cover shot. In recent months she has tried to tone down the sensationalism, instead promoting herself as a plaything adorned in colorful, ever-changing wigs and costumes. Unofficial mixtapes collecting her random cuts bear titles like "Barbie World" and "Barbies-R-Us."
Missy Elliott's genre-mashing exploits into techno, early '80s boogie-era soul and Southern bass represent a third way beyond the Lauryn Hill/Lil' Kim axis. It's less explored, though, because Elliott's innovations are difficult to replicate into something more substantial than novelty hits. (See Lil Mama, Kid Sister, etc.) Nicki Minaj's first official single, "Massive Attack," sounded like Elliott's "Pass That Dutch," and not in a good way. With Minaj going native over thundering drums and a forgettable Sean Garrett chorus, it turned into a hot mess. For her new single, "Your Love," Minaj sings the hook over an interpolation of Annie Lennox's "No More 'I Love You's.'" "Shorty I'm a only tell you this, you're the illest/ And for your lovin' I'm a die hard like Bruce Willis," she hums in a cloying, wavering cadence. In between those radio-baiting choruses, however, she drops some clever lines. "I think I met him in the sky/ When I was a geisha he was a samurai/ Somehow I understood him when he spoke Thai."
Minaj really knows how to rap. But like so many in the mixtape era, she's better at spitting hot bars and crazy punchlines than actually writing a song with themes and concepts. "Massive Attack" and "Your Love" both seem tentative and directionless in their presentation of disconnected commercial elements -- a crazy electro beat on the former, an Auto-Tuned chorus on the latter. However, urban pop songwriting isn't rocket science, and if she can't nab a hit, there are plenty of R&B tunesmiths, from Ne-Yo to Keri Hilson, who will help her for the right price. In the meantime, we're left to wonder what kind of artist Nicki Minaj will be.
On her first major mixtape, 2007's Playtime Is Over, Minaj offered traditional Rotten Apple grime. "If a bird try to get out of the cage/ One b*tch down, New York Times front page," she rapped on "Wuchoo Know," referencing Eazy-E's "Boyz-N-the-Hood." Lil Wayne made only a brief appearance on Playtime Is Over, but his presence loomed over 2008's Sucka Free. Both she and Lil Wayne dropped attention-grabbing hints of a romantic relationship, driving gossips to speculate that the two were lovers. And hey, maybe they were (or are). Minaj continued to up the ante: by 2009's Beam Me Up Scotty, she asserted that she was rabidly bisexual. "I'm Minaj/ I a-am Nicki Minaj/ And if you want a ménage/ Keep a couple pretty broads," she advised on "Slumber Party." (In contrast, she frequently punctuated Playtime Is Over's raps with the phrase "no homo.")
Some critics have praised Nicki Minaj for her wacky personality shifts, but it's a narrow kind of role-playing. After all, men love a girl that will "go both ways." She's pushed the sex angle hard, from explicit punany talk on her mixtape cuts to replicating Lil' Kim's infamous spread-eagle pose for Sucka Free's cover shot. In recent months she has tried to tone down the sensationalism, instead promoting herself as a plaything adorned in colorful, ever-changing wigs and costumes. Unofficial mixtapes collecting her random cuts bear titles like "Barbie World" and "Barbies-R-Us."
Missy Elliott's genre-mashing exploits into techno, early '80s boogie-era soul and Southern bass represent a third way beyond the Lauryn Hill/Lil' Kim axis. It's less explored, though, because Elliott's innovations are difficult to replicate into something more substantial than novelty hits. (See Lil Mama, Kid Sister, etc.) Nicki Minaj's first official single, "Massive Attack," sounded like Elliott's "Pass That Dutch," and not in a good way. With Minaj going native over thundering drums and a forgettable Sean Garrett chorus, it turned into a hot mess. For her new single, "Your Love," Minaj sings the hook over an interpolation of Annie Lennox's "No More 'I Love You's.'" "Shorty I'm a only tell you this, you're the illest/ And for your lovin' I'm a die hard like Bruce Willis," she hums in a cloying, wavering cadence. In between those radio-baiting choruses, however, she drops some clever lines. "I think I met him in the sky/ When I was a geisha he was a samurai/ Somehow I understood him when he spoke Thai."
Minaj really knows how to rap. But like so many in the mixtape era, she's better at spitting hot bars and crazy punchlines than actually writing a song with themes and concepts. "Massive Attack" and "Your Love" both seem tentative and directionless in their presentation of disconnected commercial elements -- a crazy electro beat on the former, an Auto-Tuned chorus on the latter. However, urban pop songwriting isn't rocket science, and if she can't nab a hit, there are plenty of R&B tunesmiths, from Ne-Yo to Keri Hilson, who will help her for the right price. In the meantime, we're left to wonder what kind of artist Nicki Minaj will be.
- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.
I don't agree with this one!