She’s a dynamic explosion of personality in the Rap game who goes by many names. She’s Nicki Minaj, Nicki Lewinsky, Nicki the Ninja, Nicki the Boss, and Nicki the Harajuku Barbie. But, over the past couple of months, people have just been wondering: “Where’s Nicki?”
Last week, Nicki reminded the world exactly where she was at with the surprise release of her singles “Barbie Tingz” and “Chun-Li.”
Last year she essentially embarked on the same journey and released three tracks at the same time: “No Frauds” F/ Drake and Lil Wayne, “Changed It” F/ Lil Wayne, and “Regret In Your Tears.” When you compare it with Nicki’s past and the numbers she’s been able to pull with songs like “Only” and “Anaconda,” all of these songs flopped. “No Frauds” was the only one to go gold, and the other two didn’t even crack the top ten on the Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop charts. This sudden shift in Nicki’s reach and popularity could have been the perfect opportunity for her to reinvent herself, her sound, or you know, something.
After taking in these two brand new tracks, I’ve noticed that “reinventing” isn’t the road that Nicki’s choosing to go on.
With “Barbie Tingz,” there’s absolutely nothing in this track that I haven’t heard before.
She talks about how everybody wants to look like her. She talks about how great her p***y is. She talks about how bad of a b—h she is.
There’s just nothing new to grab from this track. I wanted to hear something fresh and exciting, that’ll make me yearn for Nicki’s music like I used to.
I’m not saying that she isn’t still a lyrical beast, because she is. She’s got some great lines in the track that I’m sure you’ll see used as Instagram captions for at least the next six months.
But essentially, you grow tired of people saying the same thing over and over again for a decade.
With the female Rap game growing more diverse by the minute with influential artists like NoName, Princess Nokia, and Rapsody, I essentially don’t believe that everybody wants to look and be like Nicki. I don’t think that’s the blueprint (or the pinkprint.) It’s just not true. People might try and go after Nicki’s commercial appeal, but her sound and look? Eh …
It’s just boring, and with all the great female rappers that are available right now, there are more exciting tracks to listen to.
Also, maybe it’s just me, but doesn’t this song sound exactly like “Itty Bitty Piggy”? Listen below and let me know in the comments’ section.
“Chun-Li” is better in the sense that it sounds slightly different than her average sound, but essentially it’s saying the exact same thing. She’s the best. Everybody wants to look like her. She bad.
(We know you bad Nicki. We know.)
I just want Nicki to do better. As a long-time Nicki fan, I want her to expand and I want her to grow. She’s a staple in the Rap game. There is no denying that. I just want her to be as relevant and as one-of-a-kind as she constantly claims. -Nia Simone
