On her debut studio album, 2010's
Pink Friday
,
Nicki Minaj
made it clear she could do it all. The bloodthirsty rap powers she'd displayed on her earlier mixtapes were so abundant she had to organize them as separate characters, but she also had no problem singing sugary hooks or following scandalous diss tracks with bouncy pop tunes designed for the charts. Thirteen years later,
Minaj
is still striking out in all directions on
Pink Friday 2
, a sequel to her breakthrough that sees her continuing to stretch her range. First, there's the pop; several tracks reiterate a formula that's resulted in multiple hits for
, that of building out on ubiquitous songs from the past. Her hypersexual rhymes on "Super Freaky Girl" are a tailored fit for the familiar groove of
Rick James
' "Super Freak" that the song is based on, while "Pink Friday Girls" leans heavily on
Cyndi Lauper
's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and "My Life" samples
Blondie
's biggest song, "Heart of Glass." The seething rap tracks happen mostly in the album's first act, with concise burners like "Barbie Dangerous" and "FTCU" leading to more nuanced production on the moody
J. Cole
-aided "Let Me Calm Down" and the infectious meanness of "Big Difference."
imprints herself onto bumpy, island-tinged R&B on "Needle" (featuring
Drake
, naturally), boisterous club on "Everybody," deep trap on the
Future
duet "Nicki Hendrix," and banging dancehall on "Forward from Trini," with help from Jamaican artists
Skillibeng
and
Skeng
. The swings between genres are less jarring than when
lets her guard down emotionally. The album begins on a surprisingly mournful note with "Are You Gone Already," a song that reframes
Billie Eilish
's vaporous "when the party's over" as a vulnerable expression of loss. The album's closing moments are similarly glum, with the devotional track "Blessings" giving way to melancholic pop on the indie-flavored "Last Time I Saw You" and ending with the yearning sadness of "Just the Memories." ~ Fred Thomas