I agree with Aaron, I'd love more rapping. And the bonus tracks are by far some of the best tracks.

Once I got over the lack or rapping etc. I actually really like the album though.

Standouts would have to be 'Blazin', 'Moment 4 Life', 'Save Me', 'Super Bass', 'Muny' and 'Girls Fall Like Dominoes'. :wub:

Yeah, I think I'll get over the rapping and love it soon enough. I think it's maybe that she's has so many feature raps and mixtapes that it seems disappointing to hear her singing. It happened with "Your Love" and it happened with "Right Thru Me", but I love them now.

 

I think my favourites are the singles, "Roman's Revenge", "Blazin" and "Girls Fall Like Dominoes" at the moment.

 

Dominoes is overrated. Take the sample away and it's crap.

Completely disagree, I almost tune out to the sample as I'm not keen on the original. I love the rapping, it's kinda...fun. I guess it lacks a chorus if you take the sample away, but it's almost not important because she carries it on the verses.

 

1. Massive Attack

2. Monster

 

Much better.

 

Looking like it'll do around 400-425k+ in the US this week. Pretty incredible considering Rihanna only opened with 200k after two number ones...

I'm not sure how surprised I am at this, but I'm pleased. I'd almost be disappointed if the estimates were any lower, she had a lot to prove. So far there's been people accusing her of being all talk/hype and little to show for it, I think she had to reach these sort of sales or she'd be laughed at.

 

I can't think of anyone who's been launched in this way. How many people work with Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Rihanna, Mariah Carey, Drake, Christina Aguilera etc. before their first album comes out? She's literally been like a virus on the urban music scene, it almost seems impossible not to not know who she is.

 

I think it's a shame that she's generally toned it down from the likes of "Massive Attack" and her part of "Monster", but I'm hoping it's all a part of the carefully thought out plan to get her established. As great as she is at that thing, that image could have been a risk when it came to those all important first week sales. She needed to play it slightly safe to make sure she lived up to the hype. I guess you could say she 'sold out' before releasing her first album, but I'm thinking that she needs to establish herself as a solo artist before she returns to the Nicki we fell in love with.

Over the past few years, Nicki Minaj has been one of the most exciting new voices in hip-hop. She's delivered a stream of song-stealing or song-saving guest verses, one dynamite mixtape (Beam Me Up Scotty) and another, as good, unofficial one (Barbie World), and generally displayed a swagger, unpredictability, and ferocity not heard from a female MC in years. Little of that, however, is on her long-awaited debut album, Pink Friday.

 

Minaj turned a lot of heads by coming out of the gate as a supremely confident, powerful MC in any one of the many guises she has chosen to inhabit. She's been most often bracketed with Lil' Kim, but those comparisons are more about image and sexuality than her music; at her best, Minaj on the mic is far closer to the free-spirited, without-a-net work of Missy Elliott. She displays a wide range of talents, stuffing her verses with complex internal rhymes, agile shifts in character and voice, and twisted, offbeat wordplay. Avoiding easy categorization on her mixtapes and guest verses, Minaj has played the coquette, the powerhouse, the lady, the diva, the rapper's rapper, the fembot, and the comedian. She's posed as Rihanna on the bat$h!t awesome "Saxon", played the harajuku Barbie on "Beam Me Up Scotty", and shapeshifted into battle rapper mode on "Itty Bitty Piggy". And while she plays fast and loose with her past, her inclination to slip into a number of characters is the work of a creative former theater kid rather than a myth-making rapper.

 

And then her debut mainstream single, the rhythmically militaristic "Massive Attack", stiffed-- failing to chart on either the U.S. pop or rap charts. A few months later, the Annie Lennox-sampling hip-hop ballad "Your Love"-- a track she recorded a couple of years ago, most likely as a demo-- became an accidental hit, rising from an online leak to radio. And so now the woman who stole Kanye West's "Monster" from her all-star cohorts spends the bulk of her solo debut singing instead of rapping, leaning on recognizable and often corny 1980s/90s samples, and fronting a series of midtempo songs that inevitably lean into the string-led chorus so popular in R&B these days. In short: The most unpredictable voice in hip-hop decided she wanted to be like everyone else. Fortunately, even when she's aiming down the middle of the road, she's at least better than almost anyone else.

 

Minaj will get praise for her depth of skills, but this album isn't about showing off a range of talents-- it's about leaning on the ones that have worked in the marketplace. Oddly, she comes out of the gate with the album's most aggressive and most successful run of tracks, so livening up the clattering Swizz Beatz production "Roman's Revenge" that you're tempted to try to repeatedly get through it, even knowing that it contains Eminem recycling his Shady-circa-99 persona. The Bangladesh production "Did It on 'Em" is the record's best track, one of the few times Minaj goes to toe-to-toe with a huge beat. Minaj is upstaged by Drake and Kanye West on "Moment 4 Life" and "Blazin'", respectively, but these tracks-- plus the Rihanna collaboration "Fly" and the solo ballad "Save Me"-- are the best examples of what Pink Friday is rather than what many of us wanted it to be. That quartet of songs is proof that, even with commercial concessions, Minaj could have knocked out a great pop record, though one with anemic singles like "Check It Out" and "Right Thru Me" was never going to be it.

 

The gulf between Minaj's public persona and her music here reminds me of the criticism laid at the feet of Lady Gaga-- that for all of her high-culture namedropping, wearable art, and big event videos, Gaga's music rarely reflects the full range of her conceptual constructions. Gaga's emergence has certainly stylistically loosed up America's top female stars. Alongside the emergence of Minaj and Ke$ha, Rihanna, Katy Perry, and even the often conservative Beyoncé have enjoyed the license to be more flamboyant and delightfully cartoonish. In most cases, however, their music is in line with current fashion rather than setting it. (That said, the artist here closest in line with the the sound of today's top 40, Rihanna, is also the most consistently excellent; while it's Ke$ha, the one most forging her own path, who is irredeemably awful.) It's almost as if this generation of pop starlets is content to play outsized personalities at awards shows, photo shoots, and videos, yet stay within a sleepy comfort zone on record. Seeing Minaj fall into this rut is particularly disappointing.

 

The inclination here is to blame the label, but a song like "Dear Old Nicki" reads almost as a defense of what she's done on this album, and that's more disappointing than the actual record. (Perhaps not surprisingly, all four of the bonus tracks spread across different versions of the LP are rap songs; two of them-- "Blow Ya Mind" and "Muny"-- are among the best songs on the record.) A letter to her "old," unhinged, more restless persona, Minaj excuses the decisions she's made on this record because of the money she stands to make from it. "You was underground, and I was mainstream/ I live the life now, that we would daydream," Minaj the R&B star tells her more creative self. It's a deflating song on what, despite being a good modern pop album, is a depressing Nicki Minaj album.

 

fair review from p4k, agree with their points namely:

"In short: The most unpredictable voice in hip-hop decided she wanted to be like everyone else."

Jark, the whole album, except for the bonus tracks, is all mellow.

Erm, no it isn't.

 

Anyway what a lot of these reviews are conveniently forgetting is that Massive Attack flopped for a reason, namely that it was an atrocious song. And I can't really take seriously the word of anybody who says that Did It On 'Em is a 'great song'.

I love the album after giving it a bit more time, Did it on em' and Blazin are still horrendous, Last Chance and Dear Old Nicki are a bit weak but the rest is fairly solid. Its a shame the deluxe edition isn't available in the UK the bonus tracks really are some of the strongest tracks.

did it on'em is wonderful

I'm a bad bitch, I'm a c***, and imma kick that hoe, punt! :wub: Love this album, deffo worth the wait! Faves are DIOE, RTM, CIO, Muny and RR!

The bonus tracks really are better than most of the main album (which I'm quite disappointed at) Hopefully it will grow on me doe.

i've just finally got round to listening to this in full and i'm pretty impressed! i'm especially loving here i am i think that might just beat massive attack as being my favourote song of hers so far. save me is pretty wicked too on first listen.

I still don't understand why the bonus tracks are only deluxe tracks compared to some of the tracks on the standard album. Mad choice :huh:

Downloaded this album the other day, out of curiosity and off the back of 'Check It Out' and 'Girls Fall Like Dominoes' (which are both AMAZING). And I think I actually, really, really like this album! In particular 'Fly'!

this album owns love it

This is the best album of the year.

 

Roman's Revenge is my theme song for the chart forum. And life.

Got this album for Christmas - love it! :heart:

Favourites so far are Save Me, Blazin' and Moment 4 Life :D

Probably my fave album this year too

 

Moment 4 Life, Save Me, Here I Am and the bonus track Catch Me are my favourites!

Edited December 26, 201014 yr by Keisha's Boi

I got this Yesterday, :D LOVE IT. :heart:

 

I'm The Best, Did It On'Em, Check It Out and Romans Revenge are :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub:

I have a feeling "Moment 4 Life" is the next single! Not a bad choice. I really want "Super Bass" as a single however.

I've been trying to warm to M4L for the last week or so as it seems to be the next single. I like it, but it's not as good as Save Me, Roman's Revenge and a couple of others.

I bought the Best Buy Deluxe Edition from eBay.

Out of all 19 tracks, I love them all apart from Girls Fall Like Dominoes (thank god it's not on the CD) & Dear Old Nicki.

 

My faves are Save Me, Moment 4 Life, Here I Am, Muny & Catch Me. All great songs though <3

I thought 'Fly' was supposed to be the next single. Either way i'm sure that and M4L will both be singles.