Earlier this month Nicki Minaj dropped her newest project titled Queen. The album cover showers her stretched on a tree branch like a lion, her perfect boobs covered in jewels, and a beautiful orange sunset in the background. Pretty fire to me.
I know that there’s half of us who feel like Nicki has fallen off since the Pink Print days and we haven’t gotten any quality work from her in years. And the other half of us are Nicki Til We Die. Regardless of which lane you fell into, I hope you were able to approach Queen with an open mind and no expectations: rather they be high or low.
When I first tried to listen to Queen, I couldn’t make it past Ganja Burns. I wasn’t feeling it at all, and that’s the first song on the project so —that’s usually not a good sign. But I promised to come back to it and give it another try. I came back, and this time I tried listening to all of the songs with stars beside them. The songs with stars are the songs that most people are liking, and they’re usually some of the better songs on the projects. I listened. Didn’t like any of them.
But again, I promised to come back to it because I like Nicki. I may not vibe with all her music lately, but Nicki’s confidence, talent and her presence in this male-dominated game are enough for me to give her a proper shot.
So, I came back again and skipped all the way down to Chun Swae feat Swae Lee, and immediately loved it! Next was LLC, which I absolutely loved. Good Form, Nip Tuck, etc. So basically, the whole second half of the album was fire for me.
Would I say that Nicki is back? No. But not in a bad way. She doesn’t have to be back, she doesn’t have to be making the same kind of music that she first started out making. Are our standards low? Maybe. But that shouldn’t just reflect on our relationship with Nicki. We have a ton of male rappers out here who f*cking suck, and we let it slide. So, if Nicki doesn’t appear to be as lyrical as she once was, can we really be mad? I mean, it’s 2018. We’re barely doing lyrical.
The same way that Nicki has been rapping about her pussy and these b*tches being her sons for years is the same way your favorite male rappers have been rapping about money, cars and hoes for years.
If you haven’t listened already, I think you should give it a shot. Have you listened, what are your thoughts? You feeling it or nah?