Barbie is back! After five long years since her last album, we are finally here in Gag City!!
15-plus years in the game and Nicki Minaj is re-peaking right in front of our eyes and breaking records left and right. Pink Friday 2, the sequel to the Rapstress’ debut album reflects where Nicki is at in her life right now. The album is vulnerable, fun, and most importantly it’s Nicki having fun again with making music.
This album discusses motherhood, vulnerability, grief, depression, being a wife, and who Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty is in present day.
Before getting into the review, I need to say how proud I am as a fan to see Nicki prevail through so much with the industry, life, and as an artist. It’s one of the reasons I love her.
Pink Friday 2: The Album Review
Diving into the album, Minaj blesses her listeners with a 22-track album starting with the opening track, “Are You Gone Already” that samples Billie Eilish’s song, “When the Party’s Over”.
The track dives into the loss of her father and him never getting to meet her son, Papa Bear. It’s self-reflective dipped in vulnerability where Minaj raps “You never got to meet Papa, he sweet proper, keep Mama on my toes, I needed help, you booked a flight, in three days, you’d meet Papa.
When I heard Billie’s vocals on this song topped with Nicki’s vocals, it hit home. Nicki said it was hard for her to record it and I can feel why.
The next track, Barbie Dangerous makes you throw away your tissues and get in the zone. She’s locked in and her confidence instantly makes you gravitate to the song.
“Tryna build another Barbie doll, screw’s loose, name a rapper that can channel Big Poppa and push out Papa Bear”, she spits on the track. Minaj is letting everyone know no matter how many times these labels and executives try and copy the “PinkPrint”, they will never succeed.
The lines, “It’s clear to see, they wanna be me” and “These rap b—ches you like is my sons” are another reason Nicki is the one. Let’s be clear, every rap girl out now has been influenced and has tried to bite off Nicki Minaj, plain and simple. There is a certain charisma Nicki has in her raps that makes the bars and metaphors hit much harder.
The next tracks, FTCU, Beep Beep, and Fallin 4 U, are some of my favorite moments starting the album. All three tracks are earworms, but I must give shine to Fallin 4 U simply because Nicki’s vocals on the chorus is a vibe and the verses…
“Picture usin’ me and the Barbz and never givin’ back. Picture them disses stickin’ like grits, b—ches feel that. Picture not listenin’ when I said you would dread that. I mean LOCS, ho, you’s a chop, ho.”
The wordplay alone makes you feel it. If you get it, you get it.
Moving along, the next two tracks, Let Me Calm Down featuring J. Cole and RNB featuring Lil Wayne and Tate Kobang are on the chiller side of the album so far. I really love the J. Cole feature and RNB has grown on me a lot. I love Lil Wayne and I’m a newfound fan of Tate Kobang’s sound because the chorus on the song slaps.
Pink Birthday is a cute track that feels like an interlude as we are transitioning to the latter half of the album. The next track is the Dricki (Nicki and Drake) collaboration titled Needle. This track is another vibe from both Drake and Nicki. I love them sonically together on a song. It’s been a while since we had a song with just the two of them.
Moving onto Cowgirl featuring Lourdiz, this track has such a pop sound to it, which I love. The verses give me old Pop Nicki and the Barbie voice is so Pink Friday coded. I absolutely adore this track because of how cute, poppy, and beautiful it is. One of my favorites off the album for sure.
Cowgirl is followed by the more popular track among the masses, Everybody featuring Lil Uzi Vert. Minaj’s Everybody heavily samples from Junior Senior’s 2002 song ‘Move Your Feet,’ turning the original into a Jersey club style track. There’s a certain bounce to this song that I can see going viral and being played in clubs and on TikTok.
Now onto Big Difference, the long-awaited track Nicki teased and performed a snippet at this year’s VMAs. Without spoiling too much, the track is huge, the second verse is such a surprise, and it lives up to the hype it had when she first previewed it.
“It’s a big difference between me and you, I ain’t nothin’ like you, you, you, or you”, she spits so confidently. This song is my top five all in all.
Side note, we already know of the previous releases like the number one hit song Super Freaky Girl, Red Ruby Da Sleeze, and Last Time I Saw You. Each of these songs sounds nothing alike but they are all bangers and adds layers to Nicki Minaj and the album, Pink Friday 2.
Forward from Trini featuring Skillibeng and Skeng connects Nicki to her Trinidadian roots. It’s a way she commands as she spits and hops on the beat that makes this song so addicting. She made a good choice by adding both artists to the song as they add another element to the song and culture.
The track Pink Friday Girls samples Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and if this doesn’t encompass Pink Friday, I don’t know what does. The samples she incorporates on the album is so incredibly done to the point where it seems flawless. This song makes you feel like you’re in Barbie’s Dreamhouse sipping on a pink drink and floating on a pink cloud. It’s so addicting and pop infused.
Tracks like Bahm Bahm & Nicki Hendrix featuring Future were both previewed before the album dropped. Nicki herself said they were scrapped from the album, but I think because we begged for them to be released, she went ahead and put them on it. I love these songs for different reasons. Bahm Bahm is more of a talking mess track where Nicki Hendrix is a vibe you listen to while driving with your boo or on a chilly day, in my opinion.
As we close the album, we have My Life, Blessings, and Just the Memories.
My Life samples the iconic, Heart of Glass by Blondie. This song hits because she’s talking to fans and everyone else about who are we to judge on her life decisions whether it be who she marries or how she handles her own life choices.
“They don’t know me but they always judgin my life, they can’t tell me who to love or f—k, it’s my life, they gon’ talk about me whether I’m wrong or right, I don’t need no more drama in my life,” she said.
This track tackles on the human aspect to Nicki. People often forget she’s human just like us, so this is her way of saying, “I’m human and no matter what I do, people are going to talk about me, and although it did bother me at some point, I don’t care anymore because this is my life.”
Blessings featuring the wonderful gospel artist Tasha Cobbs Leonard is a spiritual gift. Between Tasha’s angelic voice and Nicki’s vocals, it’s about the blessings we have in our life and to stop beating yourself up and stop worrying.
Lastly, we have Just the Memories, which is the standard edition’s outro. After a few listens, this was a perfect closer to the album and it ties into the intro track, Are You Gone Already. It’s self-reflective on the journey since Pink Friday in 2010. It’s Nicki reflecting on everything she has been through from the start of her career.
“I ‘member when I was the girl that everybody doubted, when every label turned me down, and then they laughed about it,” she said.
Nicki is a rapper and the greatest female rapper to every do it because she didn’t give up and let labels define her and her craft. She didn’t sign a 360 deal; she didn’t conform to the labels who wanted her to be a certain way. Just the Memories is exactly that, it’s the closing of this chapter and I absolutely love it.
Final Thoughts
The album, to me, is amazing. I personally love when Nicki sings and the album showcases her vocals a lot more this time around.
I feel as if the “full circle” Nicki was talking about is more about feeling free to simply create without all the extra outside pressure. True fans can tell Nicki has fallen back in love with her craft and is simply doing what she does best and that is being an artist, not just a rapper.
For a little background, I’ve been a full-time Barb (what she calls her fans) since Pink Friday’s debut in 2010 (probably before that during the Itty-Bitty-Piggy and mixtapes era) and to hear Pink Friday 2 in its completion is truly, as Nicki described it, “full circle”.
Pink Friday 2, to me, is Nicki saying, “Yes I am the Queen, but even a Queen isn’t perfect, and here’s how I’ve been doing”.
My top five off Pink Friday 2 changes daily, but at the time of writing this my top five are FTCU, Fallin 4 U, Cowgirl, Big Difference, and Red Ruby Da Sleeze. Honorable mentions are Pink Birthday, Let Me Calm Down, and My Life.
I gave myself a full week to digest the album, but I must admit, this album slaps and is so euphoric. I really love how vulnerable Pink Friday 2 is, but also how Nicki still somehow finds a way to elevate herself even more than previously.
The only critique I do have of the album is certain songs I love are short like Beep Beep and Barbie Dangerous but that’s minor. My other critique was Roman (one of her many alter-ego, probably my favorite of them all) wasn’t all much included in the sequel as he was heavily involved in the original Pink Friday album.
However, Nicki has been teasing a new Roman track that will be added onto the album later, so I can’t wait for that to drop. Roman’s lethality in his bars and disses are nothing to play with (we all remember Roman’s Revenge and Roman Holiday).
Also, she dropped a deluxe version of Pink Friday 2 called “Gag City Deluxe” featuring a couple tracks including the “Beep Beep” remix featuring 50 cent and a brand-new track called “Love Me Enough” featuring the legendary Monica and Keyshia Cole. Love Me Enough is a vibe and talks about self-love, building yourself back up after a bad relationship, and ultimately putting yourself first.
All in all, the album is a body of work and further solidifies Nicki has and will always be THE Queen of Rap. As a fan, I am proud and grateful Nicki has remained true to herself and her craft.
Pink Friday 2 is in stores and on streaming platforms now!