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We had a lot of time for the first Nicki Minaj album, 'Pink Friday'. It was packed with great hooks, samples. melodies and guest appearances. Sure, 'Superbass' was a bit of a commercial cop-out when it came to the re-release of the album but that's fine - a girl's gotta eat / actually shift some albums.
The follow up, however, is an absolute turd of an album. A huge, disappointing mess.
'Roman Reloaded' opens with the slightly blasphemous 'Roman Holiday' mixing demonic chants with 'Come All Ye Faithful'. It descends into a series of tuneless rap tracks, throws in a handful of horrible dance tracks (you know you're in trouble when the atrocious 'Starships' is a standout track) before hurling a few autotuned ballads into the s*itstorm for good measure.
The album returns to hip-hop for its 'Stupid Hoe' finale, but at 19 tracks, the will to live, or indeed listen, had long escaped us. Any sense of enjoyment beaten from our ears with tuneless rap tracks and painfully transparent club tunes.
'Roman Reloaded' is an album almost entirely without merit - right down to her collaborators on the album. At least Minaj is consistent in hiring both Chris Brown, the world's most popular abusive boyfriend and Beenie Man - reggae's most openly homophobic reggae star.
Let us never speak of this record again.
