IT'S BARBIE, BITCH!

PINK FRIDAY

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars


She's Nicki Minaj, Nicki Lewinski, Nicki the Ninga, Nicki the Boss, Nicki the Harajuku Barbie, and she doesn't even know why you guys bother at this point.







Written By: Pia Fergus

Pink Friday, Nicki Minaj's Debut album is finally here! With thirteen tracks on the regular non-deluxe album and seventeen on the deluxe, she delivers her struggles, her plans for the future, her characters, her gangster-like qualities, and last but not least, her pride in her personal growth.

Coming out of Jamaica, Queens, New York, Onika Maraj also known as "Nicki Minaj" was your average local chick. She chilled with friends, worked several jobs, and she was popular in the underground hip-hop scene for a while, doing mixtapes and dvd's displaying her lyrical talent. Her most talked about mixtape, "Beam Me Up Scotty" made a breakthrough to the hip-hop audience, with tracks such as "Itty Bitty Piggy" playing on almost everyone's iPod. She was discovered by Lil Wayne, signed to the team of Young Money, and got several features on hot songs such as "Monster" by KanYe and "Bottoms Up" by Trey Songz.

Now with her own album, she has definitely made it clear that she has officially arrived, and that she does not plan to leave the rap game anytime soon. She paired up with artists such as Rihanna, Will.i.am, KanYe West, Drake, Natasha Bedingfield and Eminem to give us hot collabo' tracks.

Each and every song on the album tells an individual story. On her track "Dear Old Nicki", she talks about her old self, the young Nicki straight from Jamaica, Queens, with attitude and sas that transformed into someone new. She feels sad and want's to know where the old her went. "You was the brave heart, you stole Wayne heart, you never switched it up, you played the same part..." says Nicki in an apologetic voice. On her most in your face track "Roman's Revenge" featuring Eminem, she uses her character "Roman Zolanski" to bash her haters, with cut-throat lyrics like "You need a job this ain't cuttin' it, Nicki Minaj is who you ain't fuckin' wit!" and Eminem playing the role of Slim Shady with whimsical lyrics such as "If i'm garbage you're a bunch of maggots". The song also contains a catchy hook that says: "Ruh Ruh like a Dungeon Dragon", which will certainly have your adrenaline pumping.

On her most inspirational track on the album featuring Rihanna called "Fly", she talks about her success and her feelings about the current point in her life that she is facing. The chorus sung by Rihanna says "I came to win, to fight, to conquer, to thrive, I came to win, to survive, to prosper, to rise, to FLY". Definitely a touching track if you ask me. She also has fun tracks on the album such as "Check It Out" and "Last Chance" as well as love songs such as "Right Thru Me" and "Your Love".

For the Harajuku Barbie's first try at a mainstream album, I have to say she did pretty well. I'm looking forward to the next LP that she will release, whenever that time comes.  As she says in her track "Here I Am",

"The second time around, i'll be twice as gold..."

I'll take your word for it, Nicki.