It is undeniable that Nicki Minaj is and will forever be a principal figure in the history of the rap genre. Until recently, female rappers of Minaj’s stature were few and far between in the music industry, but her own career spans almost two decades and is arguably rivalled only by Missy Elliot and Lil’ Kim in terms of mainstream success.
With this in mind, Minaj has nothing left to prove. Even with lengthy gaps between albums, her fanbase – known as the ‘Barbz’ – remain fiercely loyal and keep her relevant on the social media platforms she isn’t present on, such as Tiktok. Her previous hit singles have retained their place in our cultural consciousness, as is the case with ‘Super Bass’, ‘Starships’, ‘Anaconda’ and successful collaborations like ‘Feeling Myself’ with Beyonce.
For a long time, the music industry had no one like Minaj. Now we have immensely popular female rappers such as Cardi B, Doja Cat and Megan Thee Stallion. Minaj paved the way for these women, as she often reminds us in her lyrics, calling for credit and respect as the ‘Queen’. But it’s evident that while their stardom continues to rise, Minaj seems burnt out. With all her big talk, even she is not immune from the highs and lows of artistic stardom.
Unfortunately, Beam Me Up Scotty is proof of this. With 23 tracks, it’s far from a half-hearted effort, and familiar names on the features – such as Drake and Lil Wayne – point to its exertion as an album that wants to be taken seriously. However, these features achieve nothing new, as the Drake / Lil Wayne / Nicki Minaj rap threesome was already conclusively explored on Minaj’s 2014 album The Pinkprint. It now feels belaboured, particularly with the confusing addition of Drake’s 2010 classic ‘Best I Ever Had’, which has been arbitrarily remixed on Beam Me Up Scotty and only has Minaj rapping and singing for just over a minute. Whatever the thought process was behind putting a 12 year old Drake song on a Minaj album, it is baffling.
The rest of the album is sadly forgettable. There are acoustic hints of Minaj’s former glory days on tracks such as ‘Kill Da DJ’ and ‘Itty Bitty Piggy’, but they add nothing exciting to her oeuvre. Her immense lyrical skill is still obvious, but it now feels strange to listen to a 38 year-old mother rap about being in school. This underlying feeling of outdatedness is made worse by the album art, which has space and planetary graphics and drives home the sense of an off-brand Star Trek aesthetic. Of course, the album title does come from Star Trek, but it’s also a reference to Minaj’s third mixtape which was released in 2009, emphasising her apparent approach of looking backwards instead of forwards with this album.
Just because Minaj is now a wife and a mother, it doesn’t mean she’s become irrelevant, or can’t have fun with her music (Beyonce’s timelessness is the perfect example of this). But Beam Me Up Scotty is neither a fun nor mature release. Without a cleverly considered rebrand of her music and image suited to her age and iconicity, it seems Minaj is headed towards an existence as a relic of the 2010s.
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