LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nicki Minaj ‘s highly anticipated fifth studio album, “Pink Friday 2,” is finally here.
Out Friday, the 10-time Grammy nominee’s forty first birthday, “Pink Friday 2” is Minaj’s first full-length launch since 2018’s “Queen.”
The 22-track launch is stacked with options, together with contributions from Drake, Lil Wayne, J. Cole, Lil Uzi Vert, Future, Tate Kobang, Lourdiz, Skillibeng, Skeng, and Tasha Cobbs Leonard.
Little was recognized in regards to the album previous to its launch, which makes its surprises much more efficient. Opener “Are You Gone Already” features a pattern of Billie Eilish’s 2019 breathy minimize “when the party’s over”; Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” makes an look on “Pink Friday Girls.”
The hyper-energetic “Everybody” with Lil Uzi Vert performs with a chopped-up pattern of Danish pop duo Junior Senior’s 2002 retro-hit “Move Your Feet.”
And there have to be one thing to pulling from addictive Y2K manufacturing, as a result of “Red Ruby Da Sleeve” samples Lumidee’s 2003 hit “Never Leave You (Uh Oooh, Uh Oooh).”
The actuality is, in fact, that Minaj is a grasp of borrowing from instantly recognizable sounds and making it her personal together with her idiosyncratic move — standing on the shoulders of giants and providing one thing utterly her personal ( and F-R-E-A-Okay-y ) in the identical breath.
“Fallin 4 U” is ethereal alt-R&B stacked with strings that will make Enya envious, Minaj and Drake reunite on the Afrobeats-heavy “Needle.”
“This entire album will be the biggest gift I have ever given humanity thus far,” Minaj mentioned in a recent livestream. “I have never in my life been so in love with something that I’m working on.”
The authentic “Pink Friday” was launched in 2010, together with her sophomore album, “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded,” following two years later.
The highway to “Pink Friday 2” has been lengthy. Fans suspected it was on the horizon when the rapper tweeted a easy three-character message, “PF2,” in the summertime of 2020. But it wasn’t till this previous June that Minaj introduced the album title. The launch date, initially slated for Oct. 20, was pushed again twice, too.
In the times main as much as the December launch of “Pink Friday 2,” Minaj’s loyal followers, known as Barbz, impressed headlines once they created “Gag City,” a pink AI metropolis impressed by the album’s cowl.
In September, Minaj hosted the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards and carried out her latest single, the dreamy “Last Time I Saw You” earlier than teasing a fiery new entice minimize from “Pink Friday 2,” now revealed to be “Big Difference.”
“I ain’t nothing like you,” she rapped, “I’m on a whole other level.”
