It’s April 3rd, and Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded was just released in North America. For former theatre school graduate and office manager Onika Maraj, the 23 track, 90 minute concept record is the next calculated move towards convincing an increasingly skeptical critical base that two very different aspects of her split personality — hip-hop and pop — can subsist under the larger umbrella of the Nicki Minaj brand.

The 29-year-old alter-ego-exhibiting, fashion-bending, wig-pioneering Queens-raised rapper has struggled with justifying the sugary, candy-coated direction of her career following her very straight hip-hop beginnings. But Minaj isn’t too concerned with justifying her objectives to anyone. She has hit the stage of her career where she feels comfortable injecting more of herself into her music, however disjointed the end result may be.

At a glance, Minaj’s professional career has been relatively brief. She’s only released two albums, popping up on the scene out of nowhere just five years ago. But her career has been an ongoing push towards a calculated takeover, straddling the line between hip-hop and pop. On the occasion of PF:RR’s release, let’s dig a little deeper and examine the journey that brought Nicki to the point where she could perform on SNL, tour with Britney Spears, and perform at the Super Bowl, all within the span of the year. Is this delicate balance of her split musical personality successful, and sustainable?

Mixtape Nicki (2007-2009)

Nicki’s mixtape years are the ones that former fans/current critics wax nostalgic for. She released three official mixtapes between 2007 and 2009 that all put her rap skills on display for potential buyers. Aside from the odd autotuned vocal, Nicki was strictly presented as a rapper during these stages. She built buzz on Dirty Money Records during these years, showcasing a tight and catchy flow that many thought could fill a vacancy in the hip-hop market in the late 00s.

Young Money Signing (2009)

In 2009, it was officially announced that Nicki was signed to Lil Wayne’s Young Money label on the strength of the internet buzz generated by her mixtapes. Based on Wayne’s appearances on the mixtapes, the allegiance was already established, but it was made official when Young Money dropped the smash single “BedRock” in 2009. Nicki signed a 360 deal under which she retains 100% ownership over the rights to her songs, publishing, merchandising, sponsorship, and touring. Nicki barely got her verse in for the final version of “BedRock,” because she was away doing a show while the rest of Young Money recorded the single. Realizing the true potential of the opportunity, Nicki laid it down as soon as she got home and sent it to Wayne. When Wayne heard it, he was convinced they would have to cut a new version of the single with Nicki’s verse intact.

This leads us to the crux of Nicki’s creative shift from mixtape rap to focussing on a more commercial angle. She released a promotional single and video for “Massive Attack,” a song that was meant to tease the eventual release of Pink Friday on Cash Money.

By all accounts, this song should have been a smash hit. Young Money/Cash Money dished out a huge budget for the video, allowing for helicopter shots in the desert, complete with snakes, monkeys, and tarantulas as co-stars. It’s one of Nicki Minaj’s best tracks, but it only peaked at #65 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and was never officially released on Pink Friday or otherwise.

After “Massive Attack” under-performed, and after a big hearty contemplative Birdman hand rub (see below), Nicki’s team decided to refocus its course.

Pink Friday (2010)
Rap To Singing Ratio – 3 rapped songs : 17 sung songs

Pink Friday ushered in a new era for Nicki Minaj. She was working with producers like will.i.am, J.R. Rotem, and Bangladesh, an elite level of pop music hitmen she didn’t previously have access to. Minaj consciously anchored her official debut on melodic pop songs and ballads, placing the focus on anthemic autotuned vocals instead of her signature, raw mixtape rap style. Her new focus on pop music, while critically suspect, meant advantageous opportunities for Minaj, including touring with Britney Spears, and guest appearances on Letterman, Leno, SNL, and eventually, the Super Bowl. On Pink Friday, only 2 or 3 songs are straight up hip-hop songs. The rest are pop songs, the distinction being that the beat is a pop instrumental as opposed to a hip-hop instrumental, and Minaj spends most of her time singing instead of rapping.

Right around the release of Pink Friday, we saw some key external featured verses from Nicki that solidified her as hip-hop’s emerging Queen. Nothing was quite as impactful as her featured verse on “Monster” by Kanye West. Nicki Minaj had released a couple of singles of her own to lukewarm acclaim during late 2010, but when Kanye dropped “Monster” via one of his G.O.O.D. Friday posts, it gave the star a renewed exposure and excitement. As much as “Monster” introduced a strictly hip-hop crowd to Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), it ingratiated Nicki Minaj (and even Rick Ross) to a less attuned Pitchfork indie crowd. Nicki’s bars on “Monster” spoke to personality and promise from the young rapper, and it gave us something to look forward to. Though her debut album was already out with several singles to its credit, when “Super Bass” was released, we were ready to embrace the hip-hop/pop hybrid wholeheartedly. Now that Nicki had expanded into the Top 40 pop diva world, what direction would she take her career in next?

Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (2012)
Rap To Singing Ratio – 8 rapped songs : 13 sung songs

The title track to Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded should make clear Nicki’s stance on accusations that she’s turned too pop: “I guess I went commercial, just shot a commercial / When I flew to the set though, I ain’t fly commercial / And the ad is global, yep, your ad was local / Where we shot it was a lot of different agricultures / So I laugh at hopefuls, Nicki pop? / Only thing that’s pop is my endorsement / I, fuck around I have to go and reinforce the glock.”

Minaj’s long-awaited sophomore album exemplifies her musical duality better than any other output thus far. The album kicks off with seven ferocious rap tracks in a row, with minimal singing, all demonstrating Nicki’s innovative flow. This is the true “concept” part of the record, where Nicki allows her personal masculine demons to be channelled via character Roman Zolanksi. For a brief time, it feels like Mixtape Nicki is dominant, alive, and well.

For the rest of the record, Nicki rolls out Euro-dance influenced pop songs which seem to disregard any larger theme lyrically, and exist as throwaway radio-ready hits-in-waiting. With four songs (in a row!) produced by Lady Gaga producer RedOne, and three tracks produced by Dr. Luke and his cohorts, it’s clear that Minaj is trying to cover her bases on PF:RR. She has enough songs to satisfy the die hard Minaj hip-hop contingent, and enough sugary pop songs that will edge her ever closer towards experimental art diva Lady Gaga’s territory. Leading up to the release of Roman Reloaded, it became obvious that Minaj was trying take her live show to a theatrical pop landscape. Yes, Nicki Minaj is going after that Gaga money.

While Nicki Minaj’s duality doesn’t lend itself to a cohesive concept album in 2012, her versatility has to be admired. Whether you’re a fan of her mixtape output, or her pop career, it would be unfair to expect her to focus on just one of the two. Just as much as her experimental hip-hop output has its place, her pop songs are catchy, well-crafted, and globally (and commercially) appreciated. Her attempted ascension to Gaga-levels of fame might be calculated, but to be nostalgic for the “old Nicki” is to long for a part of her that is still very much present in her music, if not in her singles. Can Mixtape Nicki coexist with Pop Nicki? She does.

While Mixtape Nicki and Pop Nicki may have benefited from a Speakerboxxx/The Love Below style separation, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded showcases an artist with a lot to offer. And who are we to pigeonhole her?