Right now Nicki Minaj is every rapper’s favorite rapper, but she’s just graduated from awesome guest verses on other, more famous people’s songs to her very own debut single, “Massive Attack.” The video was released this week, and is kind of a snooze: Hype Williams directed it, but apparently did so without an actual Hype Williams budget, as it’s lots of too-long shots of Nicki and Kanye’s GF Amber Rose driving through the desert in a really expensive hot pink convertible (it surprised us too, but turns out that is a boring thing to put in a music video). More importantly: can Nicki Minaj get really, really famous now? We think, and hope, so! The immediate appeal is obvious, but beyond the sassy weirdo girl rapper thing is a legit, funny MC (“now I know I got the ammo / that’s why I bulletproofed the Lambo / in the Middle East on a camel”) who blessedly deviates from the traditional female hip-hop role of mostly talking about how good at sex you are. As far as we can tell, “Massive Attack” isn’t a single from any impending studio release, so maybe on top of amassing lots of buzz, Nicki’s also figured out a revolutionary post-music-industry-collapse distribution model?
