The Nicki Minaj Singles Tournament is a head-to-head competition of Nicki’s most prominent singles and features on other artists’ singles seeded by commercial success. The tournament has a field of 32 songs divided into four different regions: two for each category. It judges songs based on their individual merits and weighs them against other songs in the canon. This battle explores the depth of her singles discography, tries to make sense of her divergent styles, and crowns victors based primarily on listenability and secondly on aesthetic value, but takes both into account when forming a final verdict.
"Super Bass" vs. "Bed of Lies"
"Super Bass" exists precisely where pop and hip-hop converge—as deft as it is accessible. The song's execution is nearly flawless: the infectious Ester Dean hook, the playful raps, and the keen sense of context come together to form a great critical and commercial success, the biggest of Nicki’s career. —SP
The closer to the chest that Nicki’s narratives get, the less she seems to embellish her verses, opting instead for plainspoken directness. On break-up ballad "Bed of Lies", Nicki lays her cards flat on the table, and though it’s generous in its vulnerability, its verses don’t dazzle. On "Super Bass" she shows, not tells; its sly, efficient details ("Sigh—sickening eyes!") reveal more than entire verses on "Bed of Lies". —MG
WINNER: "Super Bass"
"Fly" vs. "Did It On'em"
The slow-building Rihanna chorus is the perfect complement to a story of triumph, and few Minaj songs paint a dramatic picture of overcoming adversity the way "Fly" does. It is Nicki at her most subdued, addressing obstacles and dismissing them in the same breath. "Me against them / Me against enemies; me against friends/ Somehow they both seem to become one," she raps, and it's hard not to root for her. But it’s even harder to pick this over "Did It On'em", which is simply Nicki at her most ferocious, belittling her competition with bludgeoning put downs. —SP
It’s the most "serious" rap song on Pink Friday, if that’s your thing, but that’s nowhere near a sufficient explanation for why "Did It On'em" is one of Nicki’s best singles to date (it reached 49 on the Billboard Hot 100). Still a relatively new radio presence, Nicki pulls zero punches, whipping out her metaphorical dick and snarling scatalogical revenge fantasies over Bangladesh siren-stutters. "If you got at least one person in your life you wanna shit on, put your number two’s in the air right now!" she screams in the video, compiled from live tour footage; and there aren’t enough fingers on two hands. —MG
WINNER: "Did It On'em"
"Pills N Potions" vs. "Bang Bang"
It was a confusing move, releasing the piano ballad "Pills N Potions" as the first single to The Pinkprint, an album rumored to be a return to "Mixtape Nicki" (a vague ideal at best often referenced by huffy bros who never listened to her music until Kanye told them it was cool). But it was a hint of the vulnerability to come on The Pinkprint, and understood in the context of a break-up album, it’s hard not to relate: "I’m angry, but I still love you." It’s that simple, almost. —MG
"Bang Bang"'s co-headlining venture (the song is listed as a single for each artist) feels like just that: a corporate enterprise commissioned as a business deal and not out of necessity. If you listen intently, you can almost hear the setup for the pending Beats product placement campaign; it's a great marriage in theory but not in practice. —SP
WINNER: "Pills N Potions"
It doesn’t have the candy gloss of its RedOne-produced counterpart, "Starships", but "Pound the Alarm" boasts the same brand of universal club compatibility. It mimics every nu rave song ever made, yet her raps are fantastically flippant, which carries it in spite of copious airhorns. —SP
The most immediate candidate for Nicki’s worst single to date, "Only" presents itself as in on the joke but just evidences how much it isn’t and comes off as sad. Drake and Wayne leer, Nicki grins and bears it, and Dr. Luke provides an embarrassingly flimsy simulacrum of a drill beat. It feels like a step backward. —MG
WINNER: "Pound the Alarm"
All things considered, "BedRock" is kind of a dumb song: it is literally constructed around a dad joke, albeit a beautiful dad joke sung by Lloyd. Its video evokes "The Real World: YMCMB", and it contains Gudda Gudda’s legendarily awful "grocery bag" punchline, a serious contender for Worst Rap Line In Rap History of all time. But, upon its release in late 2009, the second single from the We Are Young Money comp, it was also the first time we heard Nicki Minaj on the radio, threatening to put her pussy on stuff (again). In eight slick, gloriously bratty bars she redeems the entire concept; the rest is the price of admission. —MG
The Nicki Minaj that many hardcore fans pine for is a lyrical wig-snatcher, a growling spitfire capable of going toe to toe with any master emcee on the planet. There are traces of that Nicki on "Roger That" along with a good verse from a fading Lil Wayne and a decent stand-in verse from Tyga to boot. But the raw mixtape feel just isn’t enough to overcome a powerhouse like "BedRock". —SP
WINNER: "BedRock"
Driven by dark strings, Ludacris and Nicki both channel their animated selves for a fast-moving, chest-beating celebration of women. Nicki pieces together her fractured psyche and—enlisting help from show-stealing Roman—makes a case for herself as the baddest. Sadly, the song is absolutely gutted by elementary rhyme schemes, brutally bad punchlines, and too much Luda. —SP
Kanye invited Nicki to his dark, twisted posse cut, not knowing it would turn into an exorcism. When Nicki ends her verse, panting, it’s a different song completely. If any guest verse this century is a game-changer, it’s this one. When people say they "expect more" from Nicki Minaj as a rapper, they are referring to her "Monster" verse. —MG
WINNER: "Monster"
"Give Me All Your Luvin'" vs. "Dance (A$$)" (Remix)
Nicki’s verse feels sadistically short, and uncharacteristically flat; "I’m Roman, I’m a barbarian, I’m Conan," she claims, but even her alter egos feel bored. But no amount of Nicki bars could redeem Madonna’s desperate grasp at a cool-girl comeback single, complete with "hip" dubstep breakdown—and it’s certainly no match for Nicki’s charity work on "Dance (A$$)", which makes notorious cornball Big Sean look momentarily cool. —MG
A trail of breadcrumbs will lead you directly from 2014 viral-video-to-hit-smash runner-up "Anaconda" back to Big Sean’s "Dance (A$$)", where Nicki was first introduced to Da Internz and where she first fully explored her voluptuousness. Yet, "Dance (A$$)" triumphs where "Anaconda" seemingly could not, pairing raunchy raps with a goofy cadence that blots out the eroticism of otherwise racy lines like, "Somebody point me to the best ass eater." —SP
WINNER: "Dance (A$$)" (Remix)
"2012 (It Ain't the End)" vs. "Beauty and a Beat"
Lol, remember when the Mayan Calendar made Top 40 dance-pop collectively pinky-swear to dance til the onset of the apocalypse? Yeah, it’s best not to talk about it. —MG
One of the songs where it’s most difficult to pinpoint whether Minaj is an edgy pop star or a rap icon leaning hard towards the mainstream audiences. Penned and co-produced (with Zedd) by perennial hit-maker Max Martin, the very Rated PG "Beauty and a Beat" is formulaic. But it has that indestructible hook built to crack the Top 10. —SP
WINNER: "Beauty and a Beat"
"Starships" vs. "Check It Out"
Nicki’s pop zenith is "Starships", a bubbly radio confection with a soaring refrain that catapulted her to megastar status. It is the gauge upon which all of her other pop singles are measured, the song that got Hot 97’s Peter Rosenberg all hot and bothered, and one that prompted a "pop vs. mixtape" debate that has dogged her ever since it charted. Yet, for all its flaws, it forever has its reign as a fist-pumping europop jam; Nicki at her slickest. —SP
If there was ever a guilty pleasure of a Nicki Minaj feature, "Check It Out" might be it, with its cutesy "Video Killed the Radio Star" sample and a sneakily deft second verse from Minaj ("Competition? Why, yes, I would love some," she smirks, and she’s not being funny). Then will.i.am descends from the rafters like a cybergoth Backstreet Boy, and the party’s over. —MG
WINNER: "Starships"
"Your Love" vs. "Right Thru Me"
With its chirping Annie Lennox sample, "Your Love" is a hood ballad highlighted by a narrative that unravels swiftly, unpacking details about her subject. Its chorus oozes a yearning for true, undying devotion and its verses transition seamlessly from expository to psychological. There’s an endearing schoolgirl crush at the epicenter of more pronounced feelings, namely admiration and indulgence, which she articulates fantastically. —SP
If anything, Pink Friday tough-love ballad "Right Thru Me" is an early manifestation of the sort of candidness that shapes The Pinkprint, and it’s especially bittersweet in hindsight. It’s solid, if a bit melodramatic, but it’s no comparison to "Your Love", in which Nicki paints scenes from love’s battlefield with infinitely bolder strokes. —MG
WINNER: "Your Love"
"Beez in the Trap" vs. "Moment 4 Life"
It’s the token concession of Nicki naysayers, the only unanimously cosigned single on polarizing second album Roman Reloaded, the moment suburban America fell in love with 2 Chainz, and the coolest geography lesson in recorded history. "Beez" doesn’t boast the most intricate bars of Nicki’s career; instead, she says more with less, "shitting on your whole life" in the process. —MG
There is a difference between Nicki's later street rap-abandoning singles and early rap/sung collaboration "Moment 4 Life", which tries to satisfy both audiences at once. It is a valiant effort: The Drake guest verse is an appropriate move, both from a business perspective and a sonic one. But the song is pretty much one-note all the way through because of it, and it can’t compete with the power of "Beez in the Trap". —SP
WINNER: "Beez in the Trap"
The song is redeemed by its eye-popping music video, which casts curvaceous, full-figured women of all skin tones in a body championing display. —SP
At the time, critics sneered at Roman Reloaded’s shmaltzy dance-pop, but I still think Nicki’s sophomore album is due for some reappraisal, without the weight of "real rap" expectations. Bonus track turned single "Va Va Voom" isn’t deep, but it doesn’t pretend to be; it’s campy stadium EDM for driving around with your friends or getting ready in the mirror. It’s not that complicated, and it shouldn’t be. —MG
WINNER: "Va Va Voom"
On paper "Bottoms Up" is a Trey Songz song, but there is no confusion: this is a de facto Nicki Minaj song, and one of the most scene-stealing guest spots of her career in a career made up of just that. Theater-kid Nicki is at her best here, as she performs bottle service ditz and chops up her own bars in real time. She sounds like she is rapping animated GIFs. She closes with a shoutout in memoriam of Anna Nicole Smith: it’s hilarious, bizarre, and sincere, like Nicki at her best. —MG
The sinister ode to the ménage à trois, "Lil Freak", could take on many of these songs and win, but it had an impossible first round draw against one of the truly great Nicki features. Here, she is as charming as ever, luring a faceless third party into a sexual dream scene, playing the siren without any hint of consequence. —SP
WINNER: "Bottoms Up"
"Make Me Proud" vs. "Letting Go (Dutty Love)"
It’s a cute enough premise, I suppose—Drake letting you know that he sees you putting in work, girl, and he appreciates it, not like those other guys—but Nicki’s verse feels weirdly limp. The punchline flow Drake and Nicki have grown so fond of ("I’m a star: sheriff badge!") has started to wear out its welcome, and the winky "are they more than friends?" charade has grown a little tired, too. —MG
Trinidadian by blood, Nicki is no stranger to the waist-whining reggae fusion utilized by modern rap and R&B stars (See: French Montana’s "Freaks"), but "Letting Go (Dutty Love)" is dancehall put through StarGate’s pop processor creating a radio ready jam that doesn’t compromise. —SP
WINNER: "Letting Go (Dutty Love)"
"Where Them Girls At" vs. "Girl on Fire"
One of Nicki’s most twisted, hysterical verses is hidden in plain sight on David Guetta’s otherwise run-of-the-mill EDM shout-along. Here she assumes the guise of a bug-eyed, fucked-up Valley Girl, elevating the mundane to the surreal on lines like: "Two years ago I renewed my license/ Anyway, why’d I start my verse like that?/ You can suck a dick, or you can suck on a ballsack." Instead of a third verse, Nicki yelps like a wasted square dance caller—how else would you follow that? —MG
PMA anthem qua power ballad "Girl on Fire" is a cliche wrapped in cliches. It reduces girl power themes to a cornball catch phrase. The whole thing seems trite, and it feels substanceless as a result. —SP
WINNER: "Where Them Girls At"
"Take It to the Head" vs. "Turn Me On"
On "Take It to the Head", DJ Khaled holds a support group for heavy-hitters just past fighting weight (Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Chris Brown) plus Nicki, who contributes one of her more mediocre verses of 2012; she’s competing, but that doesn’t mean she’s not coasting. —MG
Written alongside "Super Bass" collaborator Ester Dean, "Turn Me On" is Minaj’s first major departure from character and she shines as a discotheque centerpiece. —SP
WINNER: "Turn Me On"