NICKI MINAJ
"Queen"
BOTTOM LINE: Minaj continues her reign, but her kingdom is in flux.
Nicki Minaj really shouldn't worry so much. The Jamaica, Queens, native easily remains hip-hop's best female rapper, even if Cardi B. stepped into the spotlight in the four years since she last dropped an album.
Minaj's new album, "Queen" (Young Money / Cash Money), should put any speculation to rest. Her skill, execution and sheer inventiveness is clearly on display throughout the 19 tracks on the overstuffed "Queen," though her playful sense of humor is in much shorter supply.
She goes toe-to-toe with Eminem on the well-crafted "Majesty" in a way that only an artist secure in her talent would do, allowing Slim Shady to shine in his triple-time rhymes. Her warning, though, is a little too on the nose. "Gotta be dumb to make your rival 'cause I'm too powerful," she sings in a childlike voice. "So say your prayers 'cause you 'bout to die slow."
She flips The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Just Playing (Dreams)" to reflect her status, jokingly taunting everyone from Drake to Mike Tyson over the same sample Biggie used in his classic. She looks to stretch hip-hop's boundaries in the six-minute epic "Chun Swae," with Rae Sremmurd's Swae Lee singing a sweet hook at the top of his register.
And when Minaj lets herself be vulnerable, as she does in the gorgeous ballad "Come See About Me" or the tougher, Weeknd-ish "Run & Hide," she shows why her reign as hip-hop queen could be a long one.
The problem with "Queen," though, is that sometimes Minaj wastes her time on songs that are just OK, such as the inexplicably meh single "Bed," which Ariana Grande doesn't really help. (Another single "Barbie Tingz" was so bland it didn't even make the album.)
However, when Minaj is at her best, she can't be beat. And "Queen" has so many of those moments that her lead is only getting bigger.
COLE SWINDELL
"All of It"
BOTTOM LINE: Proving that stories about ordinary folks can be extraordinary.
Cole Swindell isn't looking to be some sort of NashVegas star crashing the pop charts. The Georgia native is a singer-songwriter in the Garth Brooks mold, celebrating regular life with thrilling results.
His new album, "All of It" (Warner Music Nashville), is packed with well-crafted future singalongs like "Reason to Drink." "Some of y'all in here been workin' too hard, some of y'all just here 'cause ya love this bar," he declares. "Yeah we all got a reason to drink."
Swindell sweetly pays tribute to "The Ones Who Got Me Here" with a poignant ballad. He lists things that unify on the bluesy "Both Sides of the Mississippi" _ "Beer is beer, whiskey's whiskey; out in the country, up in the city, Strait is the king and the girls are pretty."
But Swindell's lament "Dad's Old Number," about calling his late dad's old phone number hoping for him to pick up, is a classic in the making. "Sometimes I forget that these 10 digits ain't my lifeline any more," he sings with a lonesome twang that will have you reaching for the tissues or _ if you're lucky _ the phone.
