Nicki Minaj's superpower is her ability to adapt. In her 16-year career, she's been a mixtape queen for the streets, a chrome-plated pop star, a powerhouse trailblazer and—using her formidable theatrical skills—a chameleon-like rapper who's morphed into personas like Harajuku Barbie, Tyrone. , Chun Li and the beloved Roman Zolanski, all with the wittiest wordplay this side of Lil Wayne.
The original Pink Friday-her first album after a string of stunning mixtapes in the late 2000s- changed the industry upon its release in 2010, proving she could weave a tapestry of her characters, sing her face off and that sexist rap purism she would be left in her dust. Nicki the Boss set records, became a global superstar, and nonchalantly destroyed the bastion of male rappers in the mainstream in a way that hadn't been done since the heyday of Lil Kim and Foxy Brown. Despite the overdue recognition and dominance of female rappers on the charts today, it's undeniable that Minaj was the beginning of a sea change. It was the blueprint for female rappers who didn't have to be female mirrors of their male patrons, but could stand on their own.
Pink Friday 2 she aims to create and build on this moment in time and remind us—her fans, her haters, her mortal enemies—what she's done for rap, especially women in rap. Like the original, Nicki masters the art of quick-change, jumping from persona to persona, genre to genre, putting her signature spin on drill, pop, dancehall, afrobeats, R&B, Jersey club and trap. However, aside from some excellent tracks and peek-a-boo lyrics, this 22-song album – unlike 2018 Queen or even the bar-setting of 2014 The pink print— falls apart pretty quickly. While Minaj still raps bravely—especially as Red Ruby Da Sleeze, a new persona introduced on her Diwali riddim single of the same name—the album's intent is muddled through its production, which feels less like a genre innovation and more like a sneaky ploy for to worm his way into as many cracks on TikTok as possible.
It wasn't supposed to be like this! Pink Friday 2 It includes pieces about her emotional fortitude, her pride in Trini and the Caribbean, her never-ending armor, and intimate reflections on her life. On the album's stunning opener, “Are You Gone Already,” a Finneas production that samples Billie Eilish's “”when the party is over”, she struggles with the pain of learning that her father was killed by a driver in 2021 and reflects on her responsibility and love as a mother. She stretches her versatility on tracks like “Beep Beep” and “Barbie Dangerous,” which bring to mind Nicki's much-loved Mixtape: the latter interjects Biggie's “”Notorious Thugsand includes the line, “Name a rapper who can channel Big Poppa and kick Papa Bear/Ho, I'm mother of the year.” Or on “RNB,” an otherwise mediocre track with Tate Kobang and Lil Wayne where she raps, “I'm keeping his secrets/I let him beast/Kissin' on my thighs and my chest/He made it two pieces.” However, in the same song, when Wayne raps, “Tryna buy a fake booty for a real bitch,” it's a sickening reminder that Minaj felt pressure to hit photos early in her Young Money career—an example of context seeping into the music and spilling over.
