Nicki Minaj

Ten Music Artsts Who Are Dead Inside

Last week, acclaimed movie director Dave Grohl told the 15 people who were accidentally watching him fill in as host on Chelsea Lately that Britney Spears "seems dead inside" to him. Disregarding how weird it is to discuss someone's inner-deadness on the Chelsea Handler set without talking about Ch ... More >>

MTV's Video Music Awards Enters The Post-Music-Video Era

The Top 5.33 Hip-Hop Songs Of The Week

The "b word" has been a staple of hip-hop for decades, although there's some linguistic shading as far as its use: women that aren't particularly awesome are called "bitches"; really awesome women are "bad bitches"; respected dignitaries like moms are "ladies" and "females"—unless they're the ... More >>

Radio Hits One: Nine Songs From 2012 That Should Have Been Huge

The term "flop," in a musical context, usually refers to an unsuccessful album. Though singles constantly perform above or below expectations, a song will rarely get a reputation as a flop unless there's a lot riding on it, such as a pre-release single from a big-name album. In 2011, Beyonce's "Run ... More >>

Ice Age: Continental Drift

Madonna Has an Identity Crisis on MDNA

Who's that girl?

Radio Hits One: Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, And Other Urban Radio Staples Turn To Clappers

Lately, when I turn on a hip-hop station, I feel like I'm being applauded, and I don't always feel like returning the favor. I'm not referring just to the default use of handclaps (sampled or, more likely, emulated by drum machines) as snare drums in beats, which has been a common practice and has b ... More >>

Girl Gone Mild: Madonna Seems To Be Missing From Her New Single

Forget that the latest song to be released from Madonna's upcoming album MDNA is biting its title from a noxious DVD series run by one of the worst people ever to be hailed as a "celebrity" by American culture (a pretty impressive feat, that); never mind that it rhymes "fire" and "desire" on its pre ... More >>

Oddsmaking: Who Will Win This Year's Best New Artist Trophy At The Grammys?

In this week's Voice I wrote about Skrillex, the emo-dude-gone-dubstep-auteur who's spawned a bunch of funny-Photoshop blogs and garnered five Grammy nominations. One of the categories he's nominated in is one of the Big Four—Best New Artist, which seems to have shaken off its "one-way ticket ... More >>

Madonna Surrounds Herself With Her Past, Football Players, And M.I.A. And Nicki Minaj In "Give Me All Your Luvin'"

The video for "Give Me All Your Lovin'," the first single from Madonna's MDNA, premiered in full this morning, and there is something vaguely... jeans-commercialish about the way the song sounds? I don't know if it's the stuttery beat or the electronically tweaked guitars accompanying Madge on the p ... More >>

Banned By BET? What The Alleged Censorship Of Nicki Minaj's "Stupid Hoe" Video Means

Cage not built by BET's Standards and Practices Department. ​This week the Internet lit up with the news that Nicki Minaj's eye-popping new video for her Lil Kim dis track "Stupid Hoe" had been "banned by BET," a logical follow-up to the "too hot for TV" narrative kicked off by her tweeting th ... More >>

Nicki Minaj Masters The Art Of The Diss Video With "Stupid Hoe"

Nicki Minaj's "Stupid Hoe" is supposed to be a diss track aimed at Lil Kim, but in the tradition of diss tracks, it's pretty weak. Something like Jay-Z's "Takeover" uses specific, personal information about the people involved, going so far as to propose a mathematical equation at one point. Even Li ... More >>

Beyonce, Nicki, and Merrill Get Optimistic

Finding the bright side of 2011

Radio Hits One: Hot 100 Peaks Only Tell Half The Story For Cee Lo, Britney Spears, And Other Year-End Winners

One of the most frustrating things about discussing the Billboard singles charts is how a song's peak position—the highest spot it occupied on a chart during its run—is almost universally regarded as the permanent measurement of its success or popularity. Any song that reaches No. 1 is e ... More >>

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The Music Buzz

Too much and not too soon—the ever-expanding universe of sound in the city

The American Music Awards Nominations: Hey, Did You Know Adele Sold A Lot Of Albums This Year?

Have you bought your copy yet? (Give it time.) ​You can have your Grammys and your Mercury Prizes and your Polaris Prizes and whatever other musical prizes honor things like "talent" and "artistry"—the most honest awards show in pop music, though, is undoubtedly the American Music Awards ... More >>

The Video Music Awards' Nominations Play To The Internet (Again)

​Last night MTV announced the nominees for this year's installment of their annual pseudo-event extravaganza, the 2011 Video Music Awards, and once again, the nominees for Video Of The Year have three pop picks ("Rolling In The Deep," "Firework," "Grenade"), one sop to the olds in the crowd wh ... More >>

GROUP HUG

The peppiest '60s quartet reunites, almost in full

Free Will Astrology: May 25-31, 2011

Big-Name Remixes: The Sound Of Labels' Panic Buttons Ringing?

​Britney Spears' "Till The World Ends," the Ke$ha-penned second single from her album Femme Fatale, hasn't been out for very long. (Six weeks, give or take.) But already there's a splashy remix of the tune featuring both Ke$ha and Brit's future tourmate Nicki Minaj, who seems particularly ener ... More >>

Nicki Minaj Will Reportedly Give Britney Spears' Tour A Bit Of Fire

​In what a lot of think pieces will probably herald as the passing of some sort of "leading lady of pop" torch, Nicki Minaj has reportedly signed on to open for Britney Spears' tour this summer. (The tour hits Nassau Coliseum Aug. 2, and the Izod Center Aug. 5.) Minaj's lap-dancing, sex-toy-as ... More >>

David Letterman Checking Out His Female Musical Guests: A Brief History

​David Letterman is no stranger to lust: This is a man who had so much sex with his female employees that people once held a rally to get him fired for being a pervert. And though he remains a national treasure, his eyes do tend to wander, even today. On Monday night, British songstress Adele ... More >>

Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, And Nicki Minaj Are Invading Long Island In March

​If ever you wanted an excuse to truck out to Long Island's Nassau Coliseum, home to perennial NHL doormats the New York Islanders, this'd be it: Lil Wayne's I Am Music II tour, costarring Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, Mixmaster Mike, and indomitable rapper accessory Travis Barker, is coming to town ... More >>

Pazz & Jop Voter Comments: From Kanye West to The Suburbs

Download A Nicki Minaj-Centric Version Of Kanye West's "Monster" With Kanye West Conveniently Removed

​As we're now officially in My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy's backlash stage -- a function of both ambient critical regret and the super-queasy misogyny (and alleged Dr. Dog plagiarism) of the official "Monster" video -- perhaps its time to sidestep the question of whether you can separate K ... More >>

Top 25 Headlines Not As Weird As "Dave Sitek Joins Jane's Addiction"

Good luck learning all the chord changes in "Jane Says," dude​So TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek has joined Jane's Addiction, in some unspecified bassist/songwriter/possibly-non-touring-member capacity, which is super bizarre when you first hear about it, but is, upon reflection, not the stranges ... More >>

M.I.A.'s ViCKi LEEKX Mixtape: A 2010 Victory Lap and a Notice To The Haters

​For those who wondered in 2010 what had become of M.I.A.'s once seemingly unerring pop instincts, ViCKi LEEKX--the free mixtape she released in the middle of the night on New Year's Eve--provides a provisional answer: she did it all on purpose. Putting out your new mixtape at the precise hour ... More >>

Zach Baron's Top 10 Albums of 2010

Guess who? Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.​Alright, let's do this, before I change my mind. With apologies to The-Dream, Sleigh Bells, Ted Leo, Kylesa, Swans, Zola Jesus, Marnie Stern, and all other vestiges of my punk rock past, and especially you Nicki Minaj, who missed both of my lists this year. ... More >>

Was 2010 The Best Year For Music Ever? American Idol Wobbles, R&B Thrives, And The '90s Rise Again

Welcome to Sound of the City's year-in-review rock-critic roundtable, an amiable ongoing conversation between five prominent Voice critics: Rob Harvilla, Zach Baron, Sean Fennessey, Maura Johnston, and Rich Juzwiak. We'll be here all week! At least one song on this record is really good!​Gent ... More >>

The 20 Worst Songs of 2010, #8: Ludacris featuring Nicki Minaj, "My Chick Bad"

F2K10 is a countdown of the 20 worst songs of 2010. Track our progress here. ​Your chick ain't the only thing that's bad...

Lil Wayne's Twitter Confirms, Then Quickly Denies, His Apparently-Not-Happening Show Here Thursday Night

Well, folks, there was a solid 20 minutes there when Lil Wayne had us all convinced he was doing a show here with Nicki Minaj on Thursday, but he's apparently fallen victim to some sort of Twitter hack -- a lot of that going around today.

Week in Review: Who's Your Daddy?

​In the week we began our countdown of the 20 worst songs of 2010, we celebrated by mocking efforts from the Far East Movement, Ringo Starr, Godsmack, Trade Martin, and Lil Wayne. Where will Susan Boyle fall? Tune in next week and suffer more abuse until you find out.

Live: Kanye West At Bowery Ballroom, Ranting, Seething, And Enthralling

Meet The One Man In New York Who Successfully Bought Tickets To Kanye West's Show at the Bowery Ballroom

Many tried but few succeeded when, at 11:58 a.m. or 11:59 a.m., we all started frantically hitting our refresh buttons, typing Captchas in as fast as we could, and generally doing everything in our power to get into tonight's "private" Kanye West show at the Bowery Ballroom. None of it worked, so ... More >>

Carlos Santana Needs To Be Stopped

​If you happened to watch last night's American Music Awards, well, I'm very sorry. If you didn't, our good friend Maura provides an in-depth live-blog summary over at the Awl, but here's the gist: Justin Bieber reigned supreme, Katy Perry wandered so far off key she made Taylor Swift sound li ... More >>

Lloyd Banks Also Has A New Album Out This Week, Everybody

​As previously noted with regards to Nicki Minaj, this is an absolutely terrible week to put out a record if you are anyone other than Kanye West, who with his 10.0 reviews and $3.99 Amazon sales will be hogging every last bit of the spotlight in his (failed, ultimately, probably?) quest to ou ... More >>

Week In Review: The Love and the Wizardry

We are all Jay-Z's children,. Photo by Jori Klein.​In the week we told you why you can't hate Kanye West and love My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy at the same time, we made similarly bold claims about Girl Talk--ten worst moments on that record, right here--and the Beatles, who along with a c ... More >>

Week In Review: We Also Accept Your Future Apology In Advance

Everybody just stop yelling, OK? Photo by Daniel Snyder.​In the week we talked about Odd Future, kidnapping and murder, and why we sometimes like the things that repel us, we also saw the group live--alongside every other music critic in the city. They struck a weird balance to the other big r ... More >>

Nicki Minaj vs. Lil' Kim Beef is Tearing This Family Apart

The above clip is of the headache-giving variety. In it, a woman raps, speaks and cries (loud tears) about the recently widened rift between female rappers Lil' Kim and Nicki Minaj. Kim, the woman says, is like her mother, Nicki is like her step-mother and rap music is her father; she just want ... More >>

The 10 Best Posse Cuts of 2010 (So Far)

​Posse cuts are like friendlier versions of the WWE's Royal Rumble -- a platform designed to showcase all of the stars in the game, both up-and-coming and certified. Think back to the Main Source's 1991 "Live At The Barbecue," featuring Akinyele, Joe Fatal, and the debut of a rapper named Nas, ... More >>

Week in Review: Sit Down, Man

​​​​Behold the amazing talents of Ryan Dombal.​In the week someone introduced us to the term "rap sabbatical," we got investigative, bringing news of the newfound hip-hop ban at Savalas (which sent DJ Ayres packing), HARD Fest's harsh words for M.I.A., Lil Wayne's prefe ... More >>

The Bieber Bowl: The 2010 MTV Video Music Awards Live Blog

Just how awkward will the awkwardly staged moment between Kanye West and Taylor Swift be? Will Eminem deign to smile? Which uncomfortable pop star will B.o.B choose to bring up on stage with him? And how will your hosts, Pitchfork's Ryan Dombal and eMusic's Sean Fennessey, make it to midnight withou ... More >>

M.I.A. Collaborates with Nicki Minaj, Talks Jay-Z's "XXXO" Remix: "It Was Good To Hear Him Say the Word 'Metrosexual'"

Come to think of it, Nicki favors wigs too. Coincidence? Photo by Rebecca Smeyne​M.I.A.'s complicated relationship with hip-hop has always been fascinating: Kala, her last record, was hard on rap (see: the Rick Ross-immolating "Hussel," or the Timbaland judo-chop "Come Around"), but the genre ... More >>

A People's History of Summer Jam 2010

Drake debuts, Trey Songz gyrates, and DJ Khaled wins at the hip-hop event of the year

Nikon at Jones Beach 2010 Summer Schedule Proves, Once Again, That All Under-40 Adult New Yorkers Are Drunks

Jones Beach With the Rihanna/Ke$ha bill already announced for Nikon at Jones Beach Theater this summer, a pop-superheroine double-threat that Nicki Minaj sadly abandoned, there was a momentary glimmer of possibility that the Lon Guyland outdoor amphitheater's other bookings would give metropolitan ... More >>

Drake Asks Nicki Minaj to Marry Him

This snippet of "All Night Long," the next song to leak from Drake's forthcoming Thank Me Later, seems to be missing at least a Bun B verse if not--as rumor has it--one from Lil Wayne himself. Not missing? Drake sort of proposing to his Young Money comrade in arms, Queens rapstress Nicki Minaj. Th ... More >>

Rufus Wainwright on 50 Cent: "I Know He's Gay"

​When not explicating the mores of the Insane Clown Posse to befuddled internet denizens, critic and SOTC pal Jonah Weiner has an entertaining sideline asking musicians ridiculous questions for Details. Like this one, posed to cabaret icon Rufus Wainwright: "You own lederhosen custom-made by a ... More >>

So That Mariah Carey Remix Album Is Never Coming Out

​Tough times for Ms. Carey -- last year's Memoirs of a Perfect Angel (which is not terrible!) has sold significantly fewer copies than, uh, the Glitter soundtrack, and now its guest-star-heavy remix disc, Angel's Advocate, which is responsible for that daffy Nicki Minaj team-up, has been scrap ... More >>

So The Fader's Nicki Minaj Cover Story Is Pretty Great

​From friend-of-SOTC and Fader boss Julianne Shepherd comes the deepest, most thoughtful piece yet on Queens' own gleefully deranged rap heroine Nicki Minaj, who explains somewhat her hurricane of goofy/lascivious voices: "Anybody that knows me knows that I have a very, very bipolar persona ... More >>