Pink Friday

cskafidas — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 21:19:11 -0600

Nicki Minaj is known for her vulgar lyrics, colorful hair, and unique, maybe just a tad bit odd rapping style. Minaj quickly became a hot commodity; gaining attention from her intense mixtapes like “Beat me up Scotty” and from appearing on popular television channels BET and MTV. She has been featured on tracks with the big stars like Drake, Kanye West, Trey Songz and Rihanna. She even outshined Kanye, Jay-Z, and Rick Ross in the track “Monster,” killing it with lyrics like, “ok first things first I’ll eat your brains, then i’mma start rocking gold teeth and fangs,” and what’s a Nicki Minaj verse if she doesn’t address her haters, in a sarcastic voice she raps , “so let me get this straight wait I’m the rookie, but my features and my shows ten times your pay, 50k for a verse no album out!” It’s no surprise that she won the 2010 bet award for rookie of the year.

A female rapper hadn’t topped the hip-hop songs chart in almost a decade, and here comes Nicki with her crayola colored hair and a back pocket full of ferocious mixtapes. But what about an album? Minaj finally dropped her highly anticipated album, Pink Friday in November 2010. I found it to be the most disappointing album, ever.

Nicki completely changed her music style. I was expecting her to come out kicking and screaming with some lyrically intense rap songs, but in the majority of her 13 tracks she sang -- which, in my opinion, she can’t do very well. In your love, the meaning of the lyrics was just stupid; she addresses herself as a “geisha”, which in history was a trained Japanese prostitute and her lover as a “samurai” which was a ninja that was out of a job. Wow. And, not to mention her unoriginal, boring, and repetitive choruses in all of her songs. Especially in the hit radio song “Moment 4 Life” featuring Young Money artist Drake. With the whack chorus, “I wish I had this moment for life…for life…for life.” Also, all of the tracks tell the same tale: of Minaj’s rise to fame, of slaying haters and cherishing of the moment–which is fine and kind of deserved, but not really engaging after the first few tracks.

The only songs I liked on her album were the songs that featured other artists, like “Blazing” featuring Kanye West and “Fly” featuring Rihanna. She rawr-rawrs, “like a dungeon dragon,” on the song “Roman’s Revenge” that featured Eminem which I’d have to say is the only track in which Nicki Minaj lets her talented inner monster out. And the only track that featured someone else where her verse was the better one. I expected Nicki Minaj to completely slaughter her whole album, like she has done numerous times with only one verse when she’s the one being featured on other artists’ songs, but in the end everyone else outshined her on her own album. Very sad. All in all though, the whole album made me feel like Nicki Minaj tried too hard to reach her fans expectations, and gave into the hype by making tracks that would be played on mainstream radio and sounded nothing like the Minaj from her mixtapes.

Omarion Featuring Lil' Wayne

denise — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:06:52 -0500

Omarion, the B2K singer and the newest member of Young Money Entertainment has a new song titled, "Get In". It features none other than Lil' Weezy, Weezy F baby, Young Mula-- in other words, Lil' Wayne himself.

The song doesn’t have me bobbing my head to the music, but I do think it's a new sound for Omarion.

This ain’t your typical Omarion love song. He doesn't sing about the softer side of love. Instead, "Get In" is more of a club song. I’m not sure this song will put him up on the charts. It looks like he is expanding his style from his more solid R&B roots, but he has work to do if he wants to stay alive in the hip-hop game.

What do you think -- does Omarion have what it takes to stay competitive in the industry?

Previously:

Youth Radio - Topic: young money

Pink Friday

Omarion Featuring Lil' Wayne