An Album Review: "Pink Friday" by Nicki Minaj

The objective of this assignment was to write a critical devastation of a work that "annoys or irritates me."

An Album Review: "Pink Friday" by Nicki Minaj

From incredibly dull, to annoyingly vulgar, Nicki Minaj’s Hip-Hop/Rap/Pop debut album “Pink Friday” takes listeners on a journey that is nearly too awful for words.  At times, the assault on my ears left me utterly speechless and at other times pondering “can anyone create respectable music of this style?”  Each cut on “Pink Friday” is dripping with over-produced, auto-tuned vocals that often make it very hard to distinguish the lyrics from the electronic conglomeration of drum loops and bass-heavy synthesizer.  However, what does come across is a fair amount of senseless chanting and bad poetry.

Onika Tanya Maraj, known to her fans as Nicki Minaj, was born in Saint James, Trinidad and Tobago and then moved to Queens in New York City.  Prior to her debut album, Minaj released a series of mix tapes until she was eventually discovered by Lil Wayne.  “Pink Friday” contains collaborations with arguably some of the biggest stars in Hip-Hop, Rap, and Pop, but this only serves to showcase her shortcomings.  As co-writer on all of the tracks, Minaj cannot hide her pointless, yet somehow self-righteous, lyrics behind writing partners including Marshall Mathers, will.i.am, and Natasha Bedingfield.

Mathers lends a hand on the explicit “Roman’s Revenge” and manages to outshine Minaj in every way.  His flow of lyrics seems natural and even though the content is rude and nonsensical, I can at least appreciate his natural ability for wordplay.  Minaj’s song with will.i.am, “Check It Out,” is slightly less offensive, offering a pop-coated song that once again suffers from over-production.  Will.i.am brings his typical “coolness” and “swagger” to this radio-friendly tune, but there is nothing new or interesting to be found here.  In fact, “Check It Out” uses source material from The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” and “Think (About It)” written by James Brown.  Perhaps the use of these samples is the only tasteful selection on the album. 

The onslaught continues as the record progresses through the track listing, and I find it very difficult to tell each song apart.  “Super Bass” (the music video has 124 million views on Youtube!) is currently receiving extensive airplay, but I find nothing stellar about this song over the others.  It features a simple, repetitive pop chorus with verses performed in a rap-style.  The other top-billed single, “Moment 4 Life” featuring Drake, follows the same formula.  Except this time the chorus is sung with no regard for pitch or tone.  Minaj chants “for life” over a series of electronic pulses and beats.  The production quality is quite good and the balance between computer-generated sounds and voice is okay at times, but these demands are expected to be met by the modern-day pop album.  Synthesizers drone and bottom-heavy drums propel each song to the next, and the perpetual groove leads me to believe that this music is destined never to leave the club.  And that is fine, I suppose, because people do not go to a club in order to experience enlightening or uplifting music.

Nearing the end of “Pink Friday’s” one hour run time, I found myself trying to grasp onto anything remotely resembling a musical offering and this is where I found “Last Chance.”  A fitting title for the closing track on the album and one last chance for redemption.  Once again, the co-writer overshadows the lead lady as Bedingfield lends her powerful voice to the pop-infused chorus of this average, albeit radio-friendly, rap song.   

In all, I fear that “Pink Friday” offers nothing original or exciting to the world of popular music.  If anything, Minaj’s debut feeds into the growing catalogue of formulaic, unnecessarily explicit drivel that seems to dominate popular culture.  After glancing at the Billboard charts, my fears are confirmed and I appear to be in the minority.  “I’m the best now, anybody with some money should invest now,” chants Minaj, but I have a hard time recommending that anyone invest their time, let alone money, on this record.