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With a flow that launched a thousand features, Nicki Minaj's talent seemed to find its perfect niche in any of her multiple guest appearances on other artist's hits or in chart-topping singles that wrapped the most digestible version of her snarling delivery in a sugar-coating designed for pop radio. The infectious sparkle of her singles was largely lacking in her full-length albums, which could feel inconsistent or torn between Minaj's fierce skills as a rapper and her calculated pop star veneer. Fourth album Queen follows four years after 2014's The Pinkprint, and finds Minaj offering a darker atmosphere and focusing on her ferocious rap skills more than her well-tested commercial accessibility. With an hour-plus-running time, Queen stretches out languidly, making space for Minaj to follow various paths as the album moves on. The more pop-leaning moments are few here, and the syrupy piano ballad "Come See About Me" feels awkward when it shows up in between narcotic Metro Boomin-produced trap dirges like "Sir" or "Chun Swae." Melodic and radio-friendly fare, like the Ariana Grande-assisted "Bed," lands closer to Minaj's signature pop/rap hybrid formula, and she finds the sweet spot for this formula when she co-mingles sticky vocal hooks with vicious flows as on album-opener "Ganja Burns." "Barbie Dreams" adds layers to Minaj's return to rap form, referencing not just the Notorious B.I.G.'s Ready to Die classic "Just Playing (Dreams)," but also throws back the first time she visited this theme on "Dreams 07," the first track on her debut mixtape Playtime Is Over. Rhyming over the same beat over a decade later, Minaj is at her meanest and most hilarious as she drags famous rappers in an unrelenting stream of bilious rhymes. Similarly, the jittery "LLC" uncorks Minaj's flow at its most ruthless, delivering rhymes that are so quick, funny, and complexly constructed that they're hard to take in the first time. Other strong moments come with the Foxy Brown collaboration "Coco Chanel," a humid banger built on a dancehall-flavored beat, as well as the weirdly catchy "Majesty," a song with a quirky hook that takes notes from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy-era Kanye West. In the same way as Drake's tedious Scorpion, Queen overstays its welcome with an ample level of filler. Songs like "Hard White," "Chun-Li," and "Rich Sex" come off like bored exercises, and the Weeknd shows up on "Thought I Knew You" but doesn't elevate the song from vaguely moody to truly connective. While Queen isn't without highlights, it's bogged down by the less-inspired material. When Minaj leans into her untouchable strengths as a rapper, things get really exciting and an album of tracks as strong as "LLC" or "Barbie Dreams" would be one for the books. As it stands, however, Queen is another chapter of Minaj's good but largely meandering and inconsistent full-length album output.© Fred Thomas /TiVo

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4 years after The Pinkprint, Queen Nicki Minaj is back to reclaim her spot on the rap chessboard. Heated up by Cardi B’s success and her exponential exposure, the New York rapper is back to set things straight with a much tougher album than her previous works. After testing her status collaborating with the young generation and the likes of Lil Uzi Vert, Playboi Carti, and 6ix9ine on the massive hit FEFE, Nicki Minaj doesn’t give in to the temptation of staying forever young, and goes back to basics with Queen. Her verses are much sharper, and her performances without artifice, reaching new heights on her solos like on the minimal Hard White, or the joyful Miami. This competitive streak reaches its climax on Barbie Dreams, invoking the rebellious ghost of Notorious B.I.G. This track is composed like a cascade of small humoristic spikes on which Nicki lets loose about every member of the modern rap scene. And the border with serious reality can sometimes be very thin. The tension and irony of Nicki Minaj’s current position in the rap world are here summed up in a few killer rimes. Aside from this track, Queen’s more pop snippets with Ariana Grande and The Weeknd feel blander, and the useful featuring with the big brothers Lil Wayne and Future are unsurprising. The best collaboration remains the one with Eminem, sounding like a new achievement for Nicki Minaj, on Labrinth’s hopping piano reminiscent of the glory days of British pop. But the extra touch of Queen lies in the wise use of Caribbean influences at the very beginning and end of the album. With Ganja Burns and Coco Chanel, Nicki Minaj finds a sincere formula with a heady rhythmic that fits her voice and delivery perfectly. And by digging up Foxy Brown, her big sister from Trinidad, on this electric finale with Jamaican notes, she adds a new feather to her cap. Further from the unbridled Barbie dressed in citrus colours, closer to the untameable lion with an ancestral spirituality. © Aurélien Chapuis/Qobuz

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With a flow that launched a thousand features, Nicki Minaj's talent seemed to find its perfect niche in any of her multiple guest appearances on other artist's hits or in chart-topping singles that wrapped the most digestible version of her snarling delivery in a sugar-coating designed for pop radio. The infectious sparkle of her singles was largely lacking in her full-length albums, which could feel inconsistent or torn between Minaj's fierce skills as a rapper and her calculated pop star veneer. Fourth album Queen follows four years after 2014's The Pinkprint, and finds Minaj offering a darker atmosphere and focusing on her ferocious rap skills more than her well-tested commercial accessibility. With an hour-plus-running time, Queen stretches out languidly, making space for Minaj to follow various paths as the album moves on. The more pop-leaning moments are few here, and the syrupy piano ballad "Come See About Me" feels awkward when it shows up in between narcotic Metro Boomin-produced trap dirges like "Sir" or "Chun Swae." Melodic and radio-friendly fare, like the Ariana Grande-assisted "Bed," lands closer to Minaj's signature pop/rap hybrid formula, and she finds the sweet spot for this formula when she co-mingles sticky vocal hooks with vicious flows as on album-opener "Ganja Burns." "Barbie Dreams" adds layers to Minaj's return to rap form, referencing not just the Notorious B.I.G.'s Ready to Die classic "Just Playing (Dreams)," but also throws back the first time she visited this theme on "Dreams 07," the first track on her debut mixtape Playtime Is Over. Rhyming over the same beat over a decade later, Minaj is at her meanest and most hilarious as she drags famous rappers in an unrelenting stream of bilious rhymes. Similarly, the jittery "LLC" uncorks Minaj's flow at its most ruthless, delivering rhymes that are so quick, funny, and complexly constructed that they're hard to take in the first time. Other strong moments come with the Foxy Brown collaboration "Coco Chanel," a humid banger built on a dancehall-flavored beat, as well as the weirdly catchy "Majesty," a song with a quirky hook that takes notes from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy-era Kanye West. In the same way as Drake's tedious Scorpion, Queen overstays its welcome with an ample level of filler. Songs like "Hard White," "Chun-Li," and "Rich Sex" come off like bored exercises, and the Weeknd shows up on "Thought I Knew You" but doesn't elevate the song from vaguely moody to truly connective. While Queen isn't without highlights, it's bogged down by the less-inspired material. When Minaj leans into her untouchable strengths as a rapper, things get really exciting and an album of tracks as strong as "LLC" or "Barbie Dreams" would be one for the books. As it stands, however, Queen is another chapter of Minaj's good but largely meandering and inconsistent full-length album output.© Fred Thomas /TiVo