You’d be forgiven for thinking that Nicki Minaj wasn’t quite human. Quite aside from her Manga sex-robot style and out of this world delivery, she doesn’t seem to ever actually stop. Just about every third track released in the past year has featured a Minaj guest appearance. If she’s not backing up Madonna at the Super Bowl, she’s dropping verses for Jay-Z, Usher and Kanye West.
It’s good to see her taking a step out on her own for once and raises hopes that the album everyone’s been waiting for since ‘Superbass’ first dropped might actually materialise soon.
‘Starships’ is as predictably unpredictable as we’ve come to expect from Minaj. Everything kicks off with one of her instantly recognisable raps, sounding almost like a female version of the late, great Ol’ Dirty Bastard. It then shifts gear into a sugary pop chorus that would give Katy Perry a run for her money, before finally morphing into a thumping, synth-drenched club banger.
In short, it is completely bonkers, marking Minaj out as one of the game’s most singular voices. What’s particularly enjoyable is that none of it feels like an act. Minaj’s freakiness seems entirely organic and is something she’s completely comfortable with.
“I don’t mind being called a weirdo,” Minaj told Interview Magazine. “There are a lot of people in hip-hop who are probably never going to get what I do. But, by just being myself, I end up touching a lot more people who might never have paid much attention to a female rapper.”
Nicki Minaj‘s latest video – rather like the lady herself – should come plastered with several thousand public health warnings. If you’re epileptic, suffer from a nervous disposition, are pregnant or prone to fits or anxiety, you should probably stay away from the whole brand Minaj thing anyway. Her latest video for her tune ‘Stupid Hoe’ is a fast paced, brain melting neon video patchwork – the moving image video equivalent of being stung repeatedly by wasps and then soothing your stings by rolling around in sherbert. ‘Stupid Hoe’ chops between Minaj pink haired in a Barbie car, gyrating in a cage while dressed in leopard print and a long blonde wig, and finally as some kind of terrifying bug-eyed minature Bo Peep, standing on a huge chair.
It’s a hell of a watch, but due to its X-rated content, the video premiered online rather than on any TV network. “Can’t premiere on a network b/c it’s important that my art is not tampered with or compromised prior to you viewing it for the 1st time,” she tweeted to her fans.
Since premiering in late January, the video for Stupid Hoe has racked up over 20 million hits on Vevo alone, and is now on heavy rotation on MTV, though there’s worse news for Minaj fans looking forward to her sophomore album. The highly anticipated follow-up to her hit debut, Pink Friday, is not going to be on the airwaves on Valentine’s Day, as originally planned. Instead, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, is scheduled for release in early April.
Nicki Minaj started 2011 as a hip hop act on the cusp of mainstream success but she ends it as, not just a big name in the rap game, but one of the world’s most instantly recognisable artists. In many ways ‘Super Bass’ was the track that helped Minaj make the jump from star to superstar. The record was her biggest chart success, peaking at number 3 in the Billboard charts, but still contained plenty of the lyrical panache that first made Minaj’s tracks so appealing. With a catchy top line from Ester Dean, noted for collabs with Chris Brown and Katy Perry, ‘Super Bass’ was sugary enough for the masses but respectable enough to become a guilty pleasure for hardcore hip hoppers. Her crossover success was well and truly confirmed when, the whiter than white, Taylor Swift referenced it as one of her favourite tracks and Disney starlet Selena Gomez videoed herself spitting ‘Super Bass’ lyrics.
Added to chart hits, Minaj’s unique fashion sense – based on a Japanese (Harajuku) version of Barbie – became a phenomenon of its own in 2011 and a common site at fancy dress parties. With a new a reloaded version of her album scheduled for released in February, you can expect Minaj’s presence to loom large in pop culture for the foreseeable future.
