Megan Brownell social media editor
To kick off the new semester, I wanted to start off with a music review with an album I myself haven’t listened to a lot of. On Dec. 8, Nicki Minaj released her newest album, Pink Friday 2. While I do enjoy Minaj’s music, I haven’t sat down and listened to her new music until now.
Overall from my first full listen, I enjoyed the album. I probably wouldn’t listen to the full album multiple times for my taste, but I know that a lot of these songs will become frequent in party playlists. Many are fun, upbeat, and are what you think of when you hear a Nicki Minaj song. That is my favorite part of the album, is that iconic touch that will make a room go crazy when it comes on the shuffle.
The album itself debuted on the Billboard hot 200 at number 1 after its first week, and debuted 14 songs on the hot 100 list. The highest song was ‘Everybody’ featuring Lil Uzi Vert, at 26.
Starting the album off, the opening song is ‘Are you Gone Already’. I was surprised, as it started off slow and I recognized the song as Billie Ellishes ‘when the party’s over’. I thought I had clicked on the wrong song first, then I realized it was a part of the song. It was a weird start to the album in my opinion, as even though Minaj has used different songs to remix before like ‘Anaconda’ which was released in 2014 and based off of ‘Baby Got Back’ by Sir Mix A Lot. The song itself though was more slow, which strayed away from her typical sound.
Moving onto track three, FTCU was a prime song that when I heard, I could just know it is a Minaj type song without knowing directly it was hers. It was a fun, hype type of song that I know I would have fun dancing to if it came on at a party.
As you go down the tracklist, it mixes between party songs and slower songs. Though slower songs aren’t what I specifically think of when I think Nicki Minaj, they were really enjoyable to listen to. These slower songs helped the album flow more.
After a full 22 song tracklist, the album ends with ‘Just The Memories’. It was a somewhat slower song, with a good beat. I felt like it was a great way to close out the album, being slower than some others songs while keeping that Nicki type lyrics and fun to it.
My favorites are probably ‘Needles’ and the now iconic ‘Super Freaky Girl’. ‘Needles’ was a tad slower song, but the beat was strong. ‘Super Freaky Girl’ has been out for some time, and is another song based on a different song, ‘Super Freak’ by Rick James. It is fun and danceable, and also had a trending dance on TikTok.
After my listen, I give the album an 8/10, as it had some good listens, a few not so great, but kicked it up a notch with fun exciting listens. I think this is a good album to listen to, and maybe get ahead of knowing the lyrics to the next generation of party songs.