Nicki made Rolling Stone’s Best Singles of 2010 Three Times! Coming in number #10 for “Monster”, #25 with “Did It On ‘Em”, & #36 With “Up All Night”.

10. Kanye West feat. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj and Bon Iver
“Monster”
On this rumbling id-fest, Minaj delivers the cameo of the year, switching personae and voices like she’s rap’s Meryl Streep. Kanye has the good sense to let her go on for 31 thrilling bars.

25. Nicki Minaj
“Did It On’ Em””
A hazy, synapse-butchering throwdown. Nicki: “If I had a dick, I would pull it out and piss on ’em.”

36. Drake feat. Nicki Minaj
“Up All Night”
One of the year’s great driving songs, with Minaj “doing doughnuts in a six-speed.”

This week is one of the biggest for new album releases in recent memory, with high-profile albums from Kanye West, My Chemical Romance, Ke$ha, Jay-Z and Justin Bieber all hitting the streets. Those albums are all coming from artists who have established followings and track records, but there is one debut coming out this week that has hip-hop fans turning their heads and raising their eyebrows. Through a series of well-received mixtapes and guest spots, Nicki Minaj has very quickly made a name for herself as a killer lyricist and a dynamic rhymer with as unique a style as we’ve seen in the rap world. Her hotly-anticipated debut album Pink Friday is out now, and it appears to be one of the most polarizing albums to hit the mainstream in a while.

Some of the critical reactions have been extremely enthusiastic. Entertainment Weekly gave the album a B+ rating, and writer Brad Wete said that though Nicki has made a name for herself with wacky voices and strange characters, it’s her focus on fundamentals that really puts Pink Friday over. “Oddly enough, the accented voices and self-assured rhymes that propelled Nicki to stardom are hardly what make this a solid album,” he wrote. “It’s those moments when the eccentric wigs are off and aliases put away that the best songs are revealed. Like when she steps off of her throne, vulnerable and helpless on ‘Save Me,’ uncovering a talent she kept hidden throughout her sidekick days: She sings. Well, if I might add.”

Allison Stewart of The Washington Post agreed, noting that Minaj manages to show a surprising number of different colors on her album. She specifically calls out the quieter tunes, noting “to anyone who heard [Pink Friday’s] early, hardcore-heavy leaks, these softer, usually romantic tracks may feel like compromises, meant to reassure mainstream listeners that Minaj is a semi-proper girl with, you know, feelings, not just a piranha with a gymnastic flow.”

The Los Angeles Times found Pink Friday a little uneven but inspiring for its boldness. “Pink Friday shows Minaj is on the cusp — considering her facility with accents, she could be the perfect person to find a new patois, one that’s built of separate musical languages but without breaking any of them down,” writer Margaret Wappler observed. “Or she could get caught in the net, punished by the relentless category police or her own doubt of how far she can roam. But one thing is for certain: she’s got the fight and the imagination on her side — and a good neon wig never hurt a girl either.”

In fact, even the negative reviews gave Minaj props for experimenting. Associated Press writer Mesfin Fekadu got a little tired of all of Minaj’s boasting but was inspired whenever she switched it up. “When Minaj is not caught up with being No. 1, she shines,” Fekadu wrote. “On ‘Save Me,’ she strips down and presents a more humble side of herself. The Drake-assisted ‘Moment 4 Life’ has Minaj excited about her accomplishments — and cherishing her winning moment. As she should be.” And Marc Hogan from Spin is a little disappointed by Pink Friday but is still glad Nicki Minaj exists. “As an MC showcase, the album falls short, with no verses as memorable as those she dropped for Robin Thicke, Usher, Trey Songz, Ludacris or Mariah Carey,” he wrote in his review. “But this self-styled Harajuku Barbie certainly can compete with the big boys, and she doesn’t let anyone forget it.”

What do you think of Nicki Minaj’s new album? Let us know in the comments!

Don’t miss the documentary “Nicki Minaj: My Time Now,” premiering Sunday, November 28, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on MTV!

The songs from “Strip Me” aren’t the only way for fans to hear Bedingfield these days, however. She also shows up in the worlds of country and hip-hop, guesting on “Easy” from Rascal Flatts’ new album “Nothing Like This” and on “Last Chance” from Nicki Minaj’s debut, “Pink Friday.”

“I’ve always had very eclectic and varied tastes in music,” Bedingfield says. “I think you’re always going to see that from me, just working with people in different genres. I love it. Rascal Flatts were fantastic; I’ve always been into folk music and Americana, people like Johnny Cash, so I feel that’s quite linked to country music. And I know Rascal Flatts are classified as pop/country, definitely more in that world. So it was like opening a window for me.

“And with Nicki, I come from London and we’ve got a heavy influence in hip-hop. She called me and was like, ‘I’d love for you to sing on this. I’m a huge fan,’ and I was instantly like, ‘I’ll do this.’ I heard the song she’d written and it gave me goosebumps. I was like, ‘I’ve got to be on that.’ I was in Detroit, doing some promotion, so I went into Eminem’s studio and it was amazing, really catching off Eminem’s vibe. He wasn’t there, but his studio is great.”

Source: Billboard

We caught up with the fab fem rapper Nicki Minaj at the American Music Awards Sunday, and—since the glam gal has drummed up more attention to the hip-hop LGBT community than any act of late—we had to ask if she thought we’d see a homolicious rapper on the scene anytime soon:

“Of course, of course!” Nick gushed to us.

So what do we have to do? That is, to make it OK to spit some rhymes about pimping a penis?

“I think we just have to be open-minded,” said Nicki, who’s left tongues wagging with her seemingly ambiguous sexuality—she talks about smooching “bad bitches” and giving love to the fellas, but never clarifying exactly which way she swings.

“You know, we have to do what we do, and not worry about what they accept.”

At least we’ve got gals like Nicki to help get the closet door open—even if it’s just an itty, bitty bit. As she would say, That’s fetch. Don’t you think?

She’s won BET Awards, BET Hip Hop Awards, and been nominated for an MTV Video Music Award before her debut album even dropped. But Nicki Minaj has her sights set on bigger prizes. The Harajuku Barbie sees Grammys and even an Oscar in her future.

When asked where she sees herself in five to 10 years, she told DJ Drama, “I definitely wanna have my charities off the ground. I wanted to do something where I was able to do scholarships for girls in the inner cities. It’s very important to me that the girls go to school if they want to go to college and further their education.”

But that’s not all on her lofty agenda. “And of course you know, lots of Grammys, an Oscar maybe, who knows.”

Nicki is already reading scripts that may one day land her on stage at the Academy Awards. “We’re getting scripts,” said a tight-lipped Minaj. “We’re reading it, but we’re not saying nothing [yet].”

Before she takes over the silver screen, Nicki is planning to head out on tour next year in support of her debut Pink Friday. “Right now we have two options for a tour that start at the top of the year, 2011. I’ll make it public really soon.”

Source: Rap-Up.com