The Nicki Minaj Thread

[Y&RWorldTurner]

But I guess "going pop" was to be expected.

As far back as 2009, she was talking about how she didn't want to be classified as a "female rapper" and that she was an "entertainer" above all else.

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[Angela]

Did she say a female rapper is a bitch who raps? Heh. At least she didn't say a Stupid Hoe that raps. She's got mouth on her.

Aww, out of a BMW ... uhm, Isn't that a hell of an expensive car?

I'm reading the replies off of the site I found this at. So much venom about her leaving Queens, New York (my hometown too, and she was born in Trinidad - that be my moms native land) behind figuratively and literally. Even a little South side of Queens versus North side, lol. Who knew New York was still so gangsta?

Have we really seen a female urban artist do that in the past 5 years though (not that it is at all usual for a pop artist either, it's indeed less usual)? Open that big? Lil Wayne, Drake, Jay-Z, Kanye and Eminem have done it repeatedly, but unless you're a country artist (or putting your album out during Thanksgiving or Christmas week) it's kind of rare for a female.

It's arguable she wasn't able to saturate the pop audience as much as she wanted to, yet, and she alienated some of the harder core (and NY based) urban audience.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Maybe in the US, but Starships has been a huge hit in Europe.

In fact, Nicki's new album will debut at #1 on the UK album chat tomorrow, which a "female rapper" has never been able to do before. Her pop leanings have certainly built her an audience abroad, even if she's suffered because of it in the US.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Peter Rosenberg, of NY's Hot 97 (a hip-hop station), went off on Nicki for "selling-out" and compared Starships to a Katy Perry or Ke$ha recording.

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[Mr. Vixen]

I love Nicki, and I love the new album. But honestly, I didn't know it was a new album until the other day. I thought it was a deluxe edition re-release of Pink Friday with a few new tracks. I had no idea it was all new material.

[Angela]

I had never heard Starships. That does sound a lot like Katy Perry. It's not bad at all but it's not Hip-Hop.

That is a great accomplishment as is opening with a #1 album in the U.S. that could very sell as much as 250,000 in its first week. I think she'll sell a bit more than the estimate.

I don't listen to rap unless it spills over into Pop. Missy Elliot and Nicki are probably the only female rappers that i've heard that I thought to myself there's something really great to the way they put those words together (Jay-Z and Eminem for men). Nicki is probably still a little too street for me though with jams like "Stupid Hoe" lol.

In certain sub-cultures of art it's not okay to be anything other than this or that. I think that's more "wrong" thinking and acting than anything Nicki is doing. That said, she can't make songs like "Starship" and sell herself as hardcore Hip Hop. She should probably try to stop being so defensive which she clearly is at times (the piece I quoted) and just be herself and be honest about what she likes and what she's doing.

[YRBB]

I'm not sure what I think of the album yet, but I do find the "going pop" thing kind of ridiculous. True, she never did have something as blatant as Starships on Pink Friday but that album definitely had a lot of pop influences--most of the hooks were pure pop!

[Y&RWorldTurner]

It probably didn't help that Starships was proceeded by collaborations with Madonna and David Guetta.

She basically appeared on back to back to back pop recordings. Even Stupid Hoe is pretty pop.

But again, this has crossed her over globally. The European audience in particular is embracing her.

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[Angela]

I looovee the way that song sounds. Sounds like Britney in some of her harder core pop. I don't listen to radio too much anymore (between iTunes, Pandora and YouTube being available on phones), so I have no idea what's hot or not on radio right now.

For example, Superbass.

Yeah, I think her old hood is just being hard on her. If she's being true to herself, that is all that matters. Maybe the girl selling tapes out of her BMW wasn't the real hardcore Minaj, maybe this girl who likes her rap and her pop is. But again, she shouldn't get so defensive about being or not being hardcore rap or street if she wants the sell-out stuff to drop. Own who you are, whoever that is.

ETA:

Listening to the DG collab again. I've totally heard this song before, and I did think it was Britney featuring Minaj when I heard it.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

MTV did an article about it:

http://www.mtv.com/n...-reloaded.jhtml

[Angela]

I enjoyed the tooth decay nod to Starships. Starships is even too bubbluegum pop for me the self-professed pop/ballad lover. With Guetta the song and sound is at least hard, with GMAYL she is rapping - in what I've heard of Starships, she's almost making Katy Perry seem hardcore.

Thanks for bringing this article over. Interesting read. Simple and to the point. She should issue this whenever somebody bitches her out - instead of going into a f****** frenzy literally.

[All My Shadows]

And there you go. She's not a sell-out. She's doing what she wants to do and running her business the way she wants to run it. She doesn't owe anything to the streets or the "hood" fans who say she's going "too pop."

[Cheap21]

Ive been listening to the new album and I also think it comes across too pop. She sings way too much in it and not enough rapping. It definetly has some catchy songs but I preferred her first album

[YRBB]

And that's one of the reasons why I dislike the title of the album so much; it does make it sound like a deluxe edition, makes unnecessary comparisons to the first album, and is just bad-sounding. Why not call it "Champion" or whatever?

I have to agree that I prefer the first album and would like it if she rapped more; however, that's as far as I agree with all those going nuts over the direction of the album.

[Angela]

She's following in the footsteps of Lil Wayne and Jay-Z with the album titles. Wayne's The Carter IV (that followed Carter III, Carter II and Carter) debuted with 1 million albums sold. Then there's Jay-Z with his multiple Blueprint titles.