Nicki Minaj's dream: Barbie becomes the Queen of Sheba

Four 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.