Nicki Minaj is arguably re-peaking in her career. At the start of the year, she returned to form with the Lil’ Baby assisted ‘Do We Have a Problem?‘ which stormed Billboard’s Hot 100 and Digital Song Sales charts at number 2 and number 1 respectively. Accompanying the chart topper was a 9-minute short film style music video that dropped on the same day- featuring a cameo from none other than Power‘s Joseph Sikora (Tommy). What felt different with this release was the sense of organisation from Minaj’s camp that lacked in prior releases. Did she finally manage to cut the snakes out of the grass? It seemed to be so. Something had definitely shifted.

For reference, the music video for Chun Li, her last lead single, was released a whole two weeks after the song reached the top ten, and her entire rollout of the Queen album, though through no fault of her own, was messy. But with DWHAP it was clear that the release strategies moving forward would be more… strategic. And for barbz everywhere, there became a sense of hope that the Rap Queen would return to form.

After three more chart appearances in 2022 (Bussin, Blick Blick, We Go Up) Nicki released Super Freaky Girl, and alas – the Queen of Rap was back at her best form – debuting at number 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Rap Songs Chart, where she has remained at the top of the latter for ten uninterrupted weeks. In its fourth week, Super Freaky Girl was touched with an all-female remix; dubbed Queen Mix, this version featured rappers BIA, JT, Katie Got Bandzz, Akbar V, Maliibu Miitch and JT of the City Girls, helping the stability of the song within the top 10. Nicki’s trend of all female collaboration remix’s continued with a remix of Jamaican artist Skeng’s Likkle Miss, which featured 8 other women of the Caribbean diaspora including Spice, Dovey Magnum and Lady Leshurr to name a few. Dubbed the ‘Fine9 remix‘, the song is an ode to popular Caribbean music, being heavily dancehall oriented with additional soca elements.

Following the release of the Fine9 remix Nicki asserted on Twitter that she wasn’t going to let charts hinder her creativity anymore. From now on she’ll “just ‘do both”. What a Queen. To have the longest running Hip Hop number 1 of the year (Super Freaky Girl has remained at number 1 on the rap component of the chart for ten weeks since release), as well as being the recipient of the highly coveted Video Vanguard Award and still maintain artistic agency that allows for less commercially driven releases is a rare feat to say the least.

But Nicki’s major label success is somewhat of a rarity in itself; by not signing a 360 (commonly referred to a ‘multiple rights’) deal, she’s able to profit off of her tours, merchandising, publishing and more – and because of this, her label Republic Records aren’t able to rinse or dictate to Nicki; her profits go directly the her. This gives her the creative control other artists lack, and the freedom to delve into any genre she sees fit. To date, Minaj has number one’s on 6 of Billboard’s genre specific charts which is the most for any artist. She has exhibited time and time again that she can seamlessly maneuver between genre’s, flows and collaborators; it is this skill that charges her allure as one of the highest selling collaborative artists of all time.

We just never know what Nicki will give us… so many flows, so many personas, so many punchlines and metaphors. At this point, I still catch myself deciphering her intricate lyricism on songs years after I first hear them. So when she announced her appearance on NBA YoungBoy’s album track ‘I admit‘, I, like other fans (and Nicki-watchers alike) were intrigued as to the stylistic approach the duo would take – especially following their Billboard top 20 collaboration What That Speed Bout?! – which was equal parts energetically boastful as it was melodic. Leaning towards the expectation of something sonically similar to WTSB, I was pleasantly surprised the moment their new record began playing. YoungBoy (or simply ‘Kentrell’ as Nicki calls him in an opening shoutout), comes in strong with emotive, airy vocals amped up by enough auto-tune to compliment his raspy tone, whilst not straying too far from the sonics of contemporary melodic rap to the point where you forget he’s primarily a rapper, and I admit, despite blurring the lines of singing and rapping – is still fundamentally a rap song by two rap artists.

Nicki comes in super smoothly in the second verse with understated singing vocals that continue to blur the same lines of rapsinging that YoungBoy established prior. After four bars of an extremely catchy flow with lyrics that blend effortlessly into the theme of the record, Nicki switches up and gives us the punchline heavy rap delivery we’ve grown to love her for. Her overall delivery is concise and hard hitting – and the juxtaposition of the vocal production between both artists proving to be effective. With Nicki, her vocals are accompanied by auto-tune, but not too much that her vocals feel overproduced, or robotic. New listeners may be unsure if she’s a rapper that is also singing, or a singer that is also rapping – but, let’s get real. It’s 2022. If someone can’t instantly identify thee Queen of Hip-Hop’s voice on a track, they shouldn’t give their opinion on Hip-Hop. I don’t make the rules…

Between the melodies, lyrics and multiple flows – album track I admit may not be a heavy hitter in the charts, but it will definitely go down as a quiet fan favourite of those who appreciate when Nicki dives into her R&B bag.

Rating: 8.5/10

Listen to I admit here.