by
Nicki Minaj
- Record Label: Universal Republic
- Release Date: Apr 3, 2012
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Apr 3, 2012By doubling down on her cartoonish elements, she's lost all remnants of lyrical ingenuity she around the time "Monster" first leaked, let alone her various mixtapes.
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Apr 2, 2012The result is a disjointed, artistically confused release that's not only way too long but also doesn't really ring true as an "album" at all, at least if your definition is a collection of new songs with a central premise or statement that one listens to from start to finish.
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Apr 10, 2012It shows range, sure, but it feels so disparate that it's just baffling. Worse, none of these poses and personae actually feel convincing.
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Apr 5, 2012Unfortunately, her adventurous side is rarely heard in the more radio-friendly jams, which are heartfelt and catchy but less inspired.
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Apr 25, 2012If you enjoy contemporary pop whose market-tested blare offends both rockist philistines and IDM aesthetes, her second album is a worthwhile investment.
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Apr 17, 2012Pink Friday: Roman's Revenge isn't bad because of Minaj's cross-dressing it is bad because she often tries on some very banal, characterless outfits.
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Apr 16, 2012A recipe for disaster which tries to please everybody and ends up being enjoyed by nobody.
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Apr 12, 2012At 22 tracks, its formulaic and mechanistic approach begins to wear thin at times--there's just too much going on to properly digest it all--but as a compendium of chart-ready fodder, Nicki has honed in on precisely what works for her with remarkable ease.
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Apr 10, 2012While it's a whopping 19 tracks, half the album is nothing more than bargain-basement pop knockoffs of everyone from Beyoncé to Keri Hilson.
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Apr 9, 2012Roman Reloaded's triumphs all come early, on the album's hip-hop front end. In full flow, Minaj remains a delight.
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Apr 9, 2012Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, like a Whitman's Sampler, has something chewy for everyone.
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Apr 9, 2012Overlong at 19 tracks, it has its moments.
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Apr 6, 2012If you believe that art and commerce and provocation and fun – and hip- hop and disco and teen pop – can all be one and the same, here's a record for you.
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Apr 6, 2012On all of these songs, Nicki is dartboard focused-- she's rapping harder here than on almost anything from Pink Friday... But much of Roman Reloaded sweats with a too-big-to-fail desperation.
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Apr 5, 2012Halfway through, as guest rappers stop littering the proceedings, the album does a 90-degree shift and becomes a banging club affair, stuffed with David Guetta-style synth-stompers.
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Apr 5, 2012You can see Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded as a great rap album dragged down by pandering, but you could equally see it as a triumph that one of the biggest pop records of the year leads off with a half-dozen tracks of blistering, filthy, idea-jammed hip-hop.
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Apr 4, 2012It may not be a definitive knockout punch, but she can keep her title.
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Apr 4, 2012More than it's lack of rap, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded suffers most from not fully being any one thing, as it's unable to balance multiple approaches into one package.
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Apr 4, 2012Minaj is at her best-at her most compelling, most ingenious, most human-when she indulges every weird mannerism that comes into her busy brain.
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Apr 4, 2012Cut the iffy pop off these 19 tracks and you're left with Roman's true four-star empire, but as it is, Roman Reloaded is a frustrating mix of significant and skippable.
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Apr 4, 2012Pop Star Nicki is still going strong so her fans should have nothing to worry about, but those of us who started collecting with the original line should probably just find a new hobby-Mixtape Nicki has been discontinued.
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Apr 3, 2012Here both the production and Nicki's delivery border on absurdist theater, at one point devolving into Nicki literally making noises.
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Apr 3, 2012A missed opportunity to progress.
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Apr 3, 2012The album unfolds an immeasurable amalgam of genres and inspirations, all fused together in a diamond-encrusted bubble of futuristic, day-glo hip hop. The energy is palpable, the pace rarely lets up, and personality pervades throughout.
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Apr 3, 2012While Roman Reloaded is certainly more confident than the too-safe Pink Friday, Minaj might need to mature a couple more albums' worth before she's capable of wrangling the many Nickis into coherence.
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Apr 2, 2012Nicki Minaj's second album is pop postmodernity in an advanced state of hollow, banal meaningless, and the first causality is Minaj herself.
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Apr 2, 2012It's not a classic album, but its contents implicitly argue that the concept of a "classic album" has become irrelevant in 2012 anyway.
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Apr 2, 2012Tacked on to this mediocre rap album is a ghastly and desperate bid for a hit single that sees Minaj and producer RedOne snatching items from a veritable sale rack of tired Top 40 tricks and tossing them hastily over the most basic synth and drum-machine presets.
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Oct 8, 2012It lumps together all the rap tracks on the first half, and lets the pop fluff fill the rest.
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The SourceAug 22, 2012Nicki's shining moments are her straight-up, hip-hop tracks. [#252, p.87]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 360 out of 611
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Mixed: 79 out of 611
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Negative: 172 out of 611
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Apr 3, 2012
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Apr 4, 2012
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Apr 3, 2012One of the worst album of the year. Absolutely awful.