Nicki Minaj's 'Pink Friday': Super-savvy or super-lame?

In the last few days, pop fans in the media have occasionally stepped away from the frenzy surrounding Kanye's new album and made note of the imminent release of another crucial album of 2010: "Pink Friday," the debut long-player from mixtape empress and guest rapper extraordinaire Nicki Minaj.

Maybe it's inevitable, but a backlash against this fresh female artist has begun, primarily caused by her decision to include several R&B-style tracks -- structured around Minaj's very Latin freestyle-influenced and often computer-manipulated singing -- to offset the harder, Eminem-style flow on monsters such as  "Roman's Revenge."

I appreciate the argument made by writers such as Judy Berman in Flavorwire -- that women rappers are so generally unmarketable that even this extraordinary one has to soften herself up and croon to please her label and, ostensibly, her ever-growing public. But I disagree that Minaj's embrace of softer, more romantic -- and more melodic -- material is weakening her tea.

Minaj caught everybody's eye with her costume drama: Like Lady Gaga, to whom she's been compared, she is an intelligent manipulator of the visual, using wild costumes to present herself in ways that challenge the conventional images of female rappers as either strict sex kittens or hardy homegirls. But this daughter of Queens, the most culturally diverse neighborhood in America, obviously spent her youth listening to all those accents on the subway. She takes the art of the fluid self into new territory by cultivating multiple vocal personalities, making her not just another fashion plate but a true spokeswoman for the split and shattered female self.

With several alter egos helping her define her rhyming style, from the nastily aggressive Roman Zolanski to the coquettish (but never dumb) Barbie, Minaj has not just set herself up to be a necessarily versatile pop star -- she has taken on the very complicated subject of how any woman, artist or not, manipulates her own consciousness to adjust to what life within a still-sexist society demands of her.

Minaj doesn't always succeed on "Pink Friday," and I'm not even sure how thought out her split-personality approach is. But I for one admire her attempts to show range, vocally and emotionally, and to confront how confusing life for young women can be.

Many women in pop are currently struggling to reconcile how to be both (Sasha) fierce and tender; ambitious and open-hearted; hard and soft. Many, in fact, are already incorporating rapping into their vocal palettes, though only a few critics have dared to call Ke$ha or Lady Gaga "rappers."

By showing her formidable skills as an emcee, Minaj risked becoming the designated savior in the criminally unbalanced, frankly sexist world of hardcore rap. But as Tina Turner said so long ago, we don't need another hero. We need well-rounded artists who can be in this game for the long haul. I think that's what Nicki Minaj is trying to become, and despite a few stumbles on her debut album, she is on the right path.

I'll be writing more on Nicki Minaj, Kanye West and the fantasy life of hip-hop next week.

-- Ann Powers

Photo: Nicki Minaj. Credit: Business Wire

Comments

[Cindy Klesko]

She is one of the tightest female mceez in 2010.

[kayci]

Hey i think nicki is all and sum !!!! keep it up nicki !! oh yea and cindy klesko i agree wit u !

[Pink Friday]

Pink Friday is surprisingly bad because Lil Wayne was in jail and could not give his professional leadership. Nicki mentioned that Baby told her to do whatever she wanted. And she did. Too much damn singing - awful singing at that. Sorry Nicki, but you failed your barbz. Pink Friday is one big massive attack. You should postpone the release date and start over.

[Carmen]

I love her. Her style, skills,versatility. She's everything a female rapper should be in my opinion and shes hanging with the dudes just fine. Why stick any artist in a box?Shes reaching wider audiences.

[Jason]

I kind of lean towards the Flavorwire opinion to be honest.

The album tries to straddle the line between pop and hip-hop but it rarely succeeds. I don't quite understand why there are so many sung hooks when it's clearly not her forte.

From the hip-hop perspective, I was expecting verses/flows more like Monster or Go Hard (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwXbWB-Xryc) yet somehow it seems the verses are either riddled with bad punchlines or the intensity is toned down a few notches for the mainstream.

I hate to make comparisons but even when Missy Elliot was singing, there was a sense that her music was rooted in hip hop (listen to Sock It To Me). If Nicki's music is intended to be rooted in pop then it naturally warrants comparison to pop artists like Lady Gaga. But on that front it seems pop artists seem succeed more because they're focused on creating pop records.

It basically feels like she got lucky with "your love" and all of a sudden it swayed the direction of the album to be a "crossover" album. Maybe the goal of the personalities is to show the different sides of her but even so it doesn't quite work.

I feel as though the album should have helped define the identity of Nicki Minaj. But sadly it doesn't. In contrast, Drake's album solidly defined who he was. He was singing, he was rapping, but fundamentally there was no denying that the album solidly showcased who this Drake cat is.

Personally I'd give her debut effort a 3 / 5. She's talented but this album doesn't really show you that.

[Baltazar Hernandez]

Ann Powers does not think Nicki Minaj can soften up her image? hmm Nicki Minaj is the best as she says and "Pink Friday" will prove to be a masterpiece as she overcomes the generalization geared towards female Rappers. Buy It!! thanks.

[JoeLosFeliz]

She is super talented. This album should have been better - seems like a lot of other people had their fingers in it & there is too much boring run of the mill filler included.

[Kris]

Nikki's album is a flop. She wants to claim that she is the best female rapper in the game, shes weak! She rode into hip-hop on Wayne's coattails. Hopefully she rides out of it with a one-way bus pass. Plus.. Her split personality has to go.

[jojo]

Off Topic;Sorry to burst your little but noticeable "haterific" bubble @Kris;but her album is anything far from a flop.It has sales predictions of over 400k(shocking isn't it?) which is just 100k shy from Kanye's projected sales,so if that is not impressive for a newcomer,idk what is.

On topic;I think that no-one took into consideration that her album was merely a result of a rushed impulse(by her label) stemming from the success of her single "your-love".Though "Pink Friday" is still a success,I don't think that their was much strategic planning on what was to be the personality of the album and so the songs appeared to have been recorded based on the mood of Nicki in a period of haste and confusion.

I think she will do better next time around