Nicki Minaj - The Pink Print (2014)

another p good review, by lindsay zoladz at vulture http://www.vulture.com/2014/12/pinkprint-is-a-badass-breakup-album.html

molly lambert calling it nicki's erotica: http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/nicki-minaj-pinkprint/

yeeeeaaaahhh that one is a bit of a reach i think

i guess both albums' lead singles shamelessly jack a rap song's beat and sing/rhyme over it

garvey and zoladz both seem to be praising the idea of what the pinkprint is - and i agree w/zoladz that nicki's contradictions are her strengths and entirely agree w/her analysis of PF:RR - and the idea of her emotional honesty but neither of them quite get to defending it as pop music

i've kinda turned around on this and like a lot more of it than i did on first listen, altho you'd def have to cut the blatant sop-to-radio songs (pills/night is still young/bed of lies/only) & swap for the bonus tracks (or loosies like chi-raq, etc.) to have a truly dope fuckin album

(anaconda can stay, i'm over the h8 on anaconda. whatever.)

So... uh.... What's all this about?
http://community.allhiphop.com/discussion/525230/nicki-minaj-producer-goes-in-on-theshitprints-flop

they spent a year promoting the album and the first week sales are pretty bad, compared to her other albums, compared to other rap albums released this year by supposedly smaller artists (J. Cole, Rick Ross).

She was on inside the nba tonight. Her standing next to shaq was O__o

jaywan inc is a troll btw. 100% fraud

i know nothing about the veracity of those tweets, i'm just saying they didn't set out at the beginning of this long-ass album campaign to do 150k the first week.

if she had dropped the album 6 months ago out of nowhere it would've done 500k week 1 probably

I imagine it will get a bump next week when America gets christmas cash and iTunes cards

at no point could this album have gotten close to 500k, but it definitely would've sold more with a fast release when "Anaconda" was peaking

it's even weirder because even though the release time was pretty protracted, she ended up with one of the biggest hits of the year + "bang bang", and it's not exactly like "pills n potions" was a flop. & "only" is gonna go top 10 too, probably.

the pace of the campaign was weird. "Anaconda" dropping kind of abruptly killed "Pills"'s radio momentum but then "Anaconda" ended up not really doing much after the video blew up -- missed the top 20 on pop AND urban radio.

yeah -- i guess it will be interesting to see over the next few years if songs that have chart positions primarily inflated by viral videos (without being specifically viral in nature) correlate to disappointing sales for an album

I'm kinda sorta getting the feeling that this whole crying-on-the-radio relatable/confessional Nicki thing is a huge & desperate marketing ploy trying to counter all of this stuff.

wayne's verse on "only" is so incredibly terrible

I think it's pretty good! he gets the song's iffy concept out of the way in 2 terrible bars and then riffs a bunch of pretty sharp one-liners

I'm kinda sorta getting the feeling that this whole crying-on-the-radio relatable/confessional Nicki thing is a huge & desperate marketing ploy trying to counter all of this stuff.

― longneck, Friday, December 19, 2014 2:35 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nah it's all too real (i mean, girl's 10-year relationship just ended, she's obviously going through stuff). and pulling the "i am a human being" card at this stage of her career would have been a timely move anyway. a pity that this doesn't mean it's any good, though pace r|t|c i've made my own pinkprint playlist of nicki 2014 and it's 20 trax inc features so

Yeah I think the emotion she's been showing in new songs/interviews is pretty genuine. I still think there's something rigid and performative about Nicki in confessional mode, though, kind of like Beyonce before 4. maybe she'll figure out how to really express that stuff on her fourth album too.

the pace of the campaign was weird. "Anaconda" dropping kind of abruptly killed "Pills"'s radio momentum but then "Anaconda" ended up not really doing much after the video blew up -- missed the top 20 on pop AND urban radio.

― christmas with the canks (some dude), Friday, December 19, 2014 5:23 AM Bookmark

It did go top 5 on rhythmic, which was probably more its natural home than either of those formats.

THESE CIVILIANS / WHAT UP NIGGA EXCUSE MY MILLIONS

Based on what Rhythmic charts look like I feel like I've never heard a Rhythmic station in my life

So I basically fall into the "unconditional love" category of Evan R's Nicki fan taxonomy. Or, I was, at least, until this year's narrative of Nicki-falling-off started emerging, and I started doubting. Was not expecting to like the album, but have been all over it and am basically back into unconditional love territory. So, with that disclaimer, some stray thoughts:

- What's with the "Only" hate? I see it as the next chapter in Nicki's gaze-flipping... it's an uncomfortable listen and I kinda like that. Loved the duct tape bit and generally enjoy the delightful belligerence of Nicki's Bad Punchlines. I feel like people are jumping on the duct tape line excited to expose Nicki's lack of lyrical chops... c'mon.

- "Want Some More" is awesome. Love the "Thank youuuu!" and Nicki's take on 2014 The Year Of Weird Voices/Hooks. Jeremih's Future impression fooled me until I checked the credits.

- Big fan of the emotional opening run. I think her emotional output is sincere - pretty cynical to say she's manufacturing the straightforward lyrics, especially with the context of relationship evidence. The songs themselves are vulnerable enough. It would take a total cyborg (which Nicki, despite her career shrewdness so far, is not) to dedicate the album to her little brother and unborn child out of pure marketing calculation. "I Lied" is a great breakup hook, and her singing deserves more credit. I don't think I need to defend "Crying Game" to this board, thankfully.

- I, too, can't see the pop singles being huge chart hits, but I think "Pills N Potions" has been underrated this whole time - think it flopped under the weight of its hype, rather than any huge deficiency. It's a pleasantly understated song, with, dare I say, moments of sublimity. That said, I still don't go back to the other "back third" pop songs all that much.

- Despite its lack of perfect pop moments, the album is extremely listenable and well put together. Production is very polished. Features are especially well curated even though I too double-take at Breezy and Skylar Grey.

has anyone created an edited tracklist?

What's with the "Only" hate?

it's a bad song with bad raps

sincerity and emotional honesty don't correlate with artistic quality is the thing

has anyone created an edited tracklist?

soz r|t|c but yes:

lookin' ass
feeling myself
flawless (remix)
boss ass bitch
wamables
trini dem girls
truffle butter
big daddy
chi-raq
shanghai
no flex zone (remix)
yasss bish!
low
four door aventador
mona lisa
put you in a room
my n*gga (remix)
win again

obv i may be overrating "mona lisa" and "put you in a room" due to their oddness so they're subject to deletion

wayne's verse on "only" is so incredibly terrible

― you say tomato/i say imago (upper mississippi sh@kedown)

I dunno -- I'm really feeling this track. As usual with any listenable Wayne in the last few years it's timbre that matters for me, and I chuckle every time I hear the line about pissing greatness like gold is yellow or about Hollygrove as holy Mecca.

- What's with the "Only" hate? I see it as the next chapter in Nicki's gaze-flipping... it's an uncomfortable listen and I kinda like that. Loved the duct tape bit and generally enjoy the delightful belligerence of Nicki's Bad Punchlines. I feel like people are jumping on the duct tape line excited to expose Nicki's lack of lyrical chops... c'mon.

i totally get and kind of appreciate that the song was Nicki's chance to kind of refute the popular notion that she's involved in constant Young Money orgies, and that it would make more of a statement of Drake and Wayne were on the song backing up what she's saying, but somehow it all goes horribly awry in the execution. and i WISH "duct tape" was the worst or only clunker on the song, but i think at this point i'm more horrified that she does the "wouldn't _____ if their name was ____" thing twice and fucks it up both times with words that have never been anybody's name ever. i feel like the focus on Nicki as a punchline rapper has always been a little misguided, because her best lines tend to tell a little story or have vivid word choices, while her wordplay often leaves me tragically pining for the coherence and economy of language of old Fabolous punchlines.

. I feel like people are jumping on the duct tape line excited to expose Nicki's lack of lyrical chops... c'mon.

it's just a bad line and she does go out of her way to call attention to it, almost purposefully, but I guess i thought her chops were sort of beyond dispute? (her skills as a rapper/lyricist)

that whole verse is unspeakably bad

i actually think the hook is great and should have been used on a better song or at least a song where it made more sense

wamables

this sounds like an off-brand cheddar snack

http://villagefarmgrocery.com/media/catalog/product/cache/2/image/34cbcb55cdc7f11f2af756fd8a287707/n/a/nabisco_sociables_crackers_6_shapes_7.5oz_3.jpg

i fucks with socialables

several nicki songs i like to love have a terrible line or two but "only" fails in the other direction as well in that it doesn't have a single line from anyone that even nearly delights me after her opening statement

"Only" hook is pretty whatever imo, maybe it would sound good if it and the beat didn't sound like they were dropped in from completely different songs.

"only" hook is awful, both undercooked and overwrought, like uh most of the hooks on this record

yeah praising the "only" hook is an even more insane opinion than praising wayne or nicki on it to me

the best thing about the song is the beat, which isn't even any good

"only" is the evil twin of "low" to me, so many superficial similarities except everything amazing about the former - beat, hook, nicki - has been made appalling

"only" "low" and "throw sum mo" all sound the same, feature nicki, and are pretty trash imo

So for all the talk of this flopping, it only sold 7,000 less than Roman Reloaded did its first week.

that's if you look at the 'equivalent units' number (which includes track sales/streaming) that billboard now uses for the billboard 200. its sales were 194k. still that's pretty darn good considering the circumstances.

Oh word. I still don't understand these new charts.

http://orpheus-mnemosyne.tumblr.com/post/107113497601/ricki-minaj-twinkking-nicki-minaj-on

That was good

i guess but isnt killing someone on their own track always a story ...