Nicki Minaj’s new album, “Pink Friday 2,” called all Barbz from all around the world together. For years, Minaj’s fans were waiting for this new music to come and take over the industry. “Pink Friday 2” stunned many devotees from all over the place, but the buildup of the album may have bee
n more exciting than the actual release.
All the way back in 2020, Minaj teased fans by tweeting “PF2” with no other context. With this information, many fans assumed that Minaj’s debut studio album, “Pink Friday,” was making a comeback somehow. Because of the popularity the previous album received when it was released back in 2010 and for years after, many of Minaj’s fans caught back up with her music once she mentioned her older, well-loved album. Some of her most popular songs on “Pink Friday” include “Super Bass” and “Roman’s Revenge,” which both regularly appear on the internet along with many other songs on the album.
Before the official announcement of Minaj’s new album, she released her hit single “Super Freaky Girl” in Aug. of 2022, which gained lots of attention on TikTok. Because of Minaj’s immense social media presence, a lot of her music reached a younger audience, leading to many teens idolizing her, along with her original fans that were there for her debut album.
On June 5, 2023, Minaj officially announced that “Pink Friday 2” was to be released on Oct. 23, 2023, but then reported that she was going to push the release date back to Nov. 17. Although fans were disappointed with the longer wait time, Minaj said that the album was going to be well worth the wait.
Fall rolled around and on Oct. 25, Minaj pushed back the release date yet again to Dec. 8 so she could release the album on her 41st birthday. To keep her fans fed, she released another single named “Last Time I Saw You” on Sep. 1, 2023.
Finally, after three long years of music teases, singles and date changes, Minaj finally dropped her new album on the day she said she would, Dec. 8.
Because of the extended amount of time the album took, I’m sad to say that I was disappointed in her new music and I expected a lot more out of Minaj. Don’t get me wrong, I must give her credit for adding a whopping 22 tracks on the album, but I would’ve preferred she cut the list down for better quality songs.
As someone who’s always loved Nicki Minaj and frequently kept up with her music, I’m aware that she often samples popular songs and modifies them to her style. For instance, her hit single “Anaconda” (2014) possesses notes from the hit 1992 song “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix-a-Lot, so it was no surprise when she did the same with a few songs on her new album.
Although some may argue that her twists on classic tunes are creative and gives her an identity, I think that there is a very fine line between this so-called “creative expression” and unoriginality. Nine out of 22 tracks on “Pink Friday 2” have some kind of insertions of other songs on them, and in my opinion, it might be a little excessive. Of course, I love a good sample from time-to-time, but the whole album felt borrowed from other artists — it didn’t feel like it was Minaj’s music. The album’s first track, “Are You Gone Already,” includes music from Billie Eilish’s “When the Party’s Over.” This song specifically caught me off guard, because half of the song is just the lyrics of Eilish’s song with a higher pitch. I absolutely love Eilish and her music, but personally, I didn’t think rap and sad indie pop music meshed well together. Minjaj also includes samples of “Notorious Thugs” by Notorious B.I.G. and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony in “Barbie Dangerous,” “F*** the Club Up” by Wacka Flocka Flame (Ft. Pastor Troy and Slim Dunkin) in “FTCU,” “Pornagraphy” by Travis Scott in “Pink Birthday,” “Move Your Feet” by Junior Senior with interpolations of “I Just Wanna Rock” by Lil Uzi Vert in “Everybody,” “Never Leave You Uh Oooh, Uh Oooh” by Lumidee in “Red Ruby Da Sleeze,” “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” by Cindi Lauper” in “Pink Friday Girls,” “Can’t Touch This” by MC Hammer and “Super Freak” by Rick James in “Super Freaky Girl” and finally “Heart of Glass” by Blondie in “My Life.”
Minaj also featured a couple of other artists in her album, which I always appreciate. By adding well-known artists on her new songs such as J. Cole, Lil Wayne, Lil Uzi Vert and Future, a larger audience is reached. As for the smaller artists featured on the album like Louridz, Skillibeng and Skeng and Tasha Cobbs Leonard, this album is a perfect opportunity to get their name out there. Personally, my favorite feature was J. Cole, but I may be biased because I’m a huge J. Cole fan as is.
Furthermore, I wish she chose to name the album something a little more original than naming it after one of her old albums. I do think it was a good business choice, but the two albums don’t really correlate and it just feels unnecessary.
As for the quality of the other songs, I think they all sound very tailor-made for the radio and internet. I don’t think there’s any problem with that, but no songs really stuck out to me. But, I do accredit her with making super catchy songs, I find myself singing parts of her music all the time. I also liked that she made an effort to assemble a mix of songs with fun and playful lyrics, as well as songs with more personal lyrics. Because the album is in the rap genre, pretty much all the songs on the album obtain a faster paced beat, but she still managed to add some emotion to the album with songs like “Let Me Calm Down” featuring J. Cole and “Just The Memories.”
Overall, I think Nicki Minaj is a clever business woman with enough experience in the music industry to make it with her new album. Although her new music isn’t necessarily my cup of tea, I still believe she is an extremely talented artist with an amazing and unforgettable personality. Long live the Barbz.
