Nicki Minaj: Pink Friday – review

After several mixtapes, innumerable guest spots and a verse on Kanye West's record that almost steals the album from under him, Nicki Minaj's long-awaited major-label debut is a triumph of prevarication. Pink Friday can't decide whether Minaj is a rapper or just another pop artist. Slushy singles like "Your Love" hinted that the New York rapper might have become a bowdlerised shadow of her former self. But although she looks like a cartoon, she can still – occasionally – rap like a stevedore with Tourette's. "Roman's Revenge" finds her going foul mouth to mouth with Eminem and coming out even. This album's pop quotient, meanwhile, is adequate, but anonymous.