Mixtape Nicki vs Pop Nicki

On November 19, 2012, female rapper Nicki Minaj dropped her album entitled, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded- The Re-Up. In an interview, Nicki stated, “the feel of the rerelease is kind of like my first sound, like the mixtapes,” when referring to this album. Since her claim to fame as one of the hottest female rap artist out, many of her fans and spectators have said that she has lost her substance in a lot of her mainstream music lately. Many prefer the ‘mixtape Nicki,’ so many of her fans anticipated that she would return to old days in this Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded- The Re-Up album.

Two exact years prior to the release of her third album, she debuted her first album, Pink Friday. It debuted at #2 on Billboard’s Top 200 albums, along with #2 in R&B/Hip-Hop Album, Rap, Digital Album, and Tastemaker. She was recognized as MTV’s first female artist to be included on MTV’s Annual Hottest MC and one of the first artists to have seven songs on the Billboard Hot 100 back to back . As a new mainstream female rapper in the industry, Nicki Minaj was starting off on the right foot. Her album Pink Friday went certified Platinum.

It was then year and a half later when she released her sophomore album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded. This album dropped this year on April 12^th. It is currently charting on Billboard as #7 for Rap Albums, but debuted as No. 1. Although it debuted at number 1, people did not react well to the content of the album.  

As stated earlier, a lot of people have said that Nicki Minaj has lost her substance as a female rapper. A lot of her records have turned Pop and people are not responding well to it. Many believe that she is losing her originality. If you haven’t noticed, her album titles have been the same name for the most part and have not shown much originality or creativity. Sales for her third album has not been released as of yet to know how well or poorly it did. Projected sales for her album though, were not looking too good anyways; many retailers such as Target and Wal-Mart did not distribute her album. Best Buy offered it, but had a limited amount. In an interview, Nicki said, "it is hard to get the album because the stores basically said that the last few re-releases they had put out did not do well and they didn’t want to take a chance. So, Target and Wal-Mart is not selling the album, and Target is actually my biggest retailer — they’ve always been my biggest retailer. They’ve sold the most Nicki Minaj albums ever, so, thank you, Target. But I wish you could’ve sold this one.”

I myself have enjoyed some of music that Nicki Minaj puts out. I did notice her transition to more of the Pop genre, but many R&B/Hip Hop artists have been successful in catering to both genres. Who’s to say that Nicki Minaj may not be successful in it as well? Although she may be losing some of her original fans when she was ‘mixtape Nicki,' but those fans could be easily replace as she transitions to the Pop culture.