It’s been four years since Nicki Minaj’s last commercial album in 2014 called Pink Print. It’s 2018 now and Nicki Minaj, whom is regarded by many as one of the greatest female rappers of this generation, has dropped a brand new nineteen track album titled Queen.
While listening to the album it’s easy to tell Nicki Minaj came into this body of work with plenty of confidence. It didn’t feel as if she was rapping to prove a point, she was just being herself and having fun.
Features on the album include artist like Eminem, Lil Wayne, Ariana Grande, The Weeknd, Swae Lee, and Future. It may sound like a lot of features but they mixed well when incorporated into some of these nineteen tracks.
A feature that stood out was Eminem as he was on the song “Majesty” in which he and Nicki Minaj deliver a song similar to the smash hit record they released back in 2010 called “Roman’s Revenge.” Eight years later we get somewhat of a part two to that. Eminem truly delivered with a great non-stop ballistic flow, as he’s known for, and on this song it really shined.
Ms. Chun-Li (Nicki Minaj’s nickname) and Swae Lee, also came together to create a song called “Chun Swae” on a Metro Boomin trap beat. This was another great song that has a feature, and this song consisted of amazing singing vocals from Swae Lee which complemented not only the beat but Nicki Minaj’s part of the song as well.
In this album Nicki Minaj incorporates some Caribbean beats and flows. Though we hear this a lot from artist like Drake and Rihanna, we never really heard it from Nicki Minaj. The Caribbean vibe and instrumentals is part of her personal culture due to her being from Trinidad and Tobago and it’s great that she can share that with her listeners and make it part of this Queen album as well.
Nicki Minaj shows a lot of versatility on this album, it’s as if she locks herself into a different mode for a different song. The way she uses her voice and changes her flows makes the album have different layers to it, from Caribbean rhythms, to trap, to pop, to songs where she’s not only rapping but singing and singing beautifully at that. This shows a versatile side to Nicki Minaj, and she shows that versatility all over this album, literally every song.
This album was truly a great album overall, from the production, to the lyrics, to the overall message, even the title itself – Queen, the title goes extremely well with the album.
It’s like Nicki Minaj is reminding us that she is the queen of hip hop and though female rappers like Cardi B may be popping off and making hits and getting a lot of radio play, she’s still the pioneer of it all and she’s still on top.
This album was never once boring, the whole album was consistently throwing something new and different on each song. Four years is a long time, however, this album was honestly worth the wait. Nicki Minaj delivered a truly great album, after this she’s undoubtedly the Queen.
