Nicki Minaj - Queen

Pitchfork 76

On her most rap-oriented release yet, Nicki jettisons all the industry madness, drowns out the noise, and creates rap the way she believes it should sound.

The Guardian 60

Not everything connects on the rapper’s regal fourth album, but when it does, she shows what a unique talent she is

As recently noted in these pages, the campaign for Nicki Minaj’s fourth album hasn’t been a charmed one: combative and snippy with fans on Twitter, she has not had a major hit with any of its singles. Her chart success has instead come from guesting on FeFe with 6ix9ine, the rapper who could be jailed and put on the sex offenders register for using a child in a sexual performance – perhaps not a great look for a woman trying to assert herself, from her album title downwards, as hip-hop’s head of state.

And across 19 tracks, there are inevitably some that are not even fit for a lowly viscountess in a leaky manor house, particularly the R&B numbers. Despite their heartfelt accounts of trust issues, Nip Tuck and Run & Hide evaporate from your memory as soon as they end. Thought I Knew You is as disappointing as the romances that she and the Weeknd complain about. Her single with Ariana Grande, Bed, is melodically underpowered, even if Minaj vividly admires some oral lovemaking skills (indeed, the sex on the album is all about queenly cunnilingus, Minaj airily receiving rather than giving). But her singing voice – audibly influenced by Grande’s delivery – has strengthened, and, when given a robust song in Come See About Me, she creates an authentic lighters up moment.