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.
Region 1
"Super Bass" vs. "Did It On'em"
Here, Nicki’s perfect pop song takes on some of her blistering street raps, the type of bars that would feel right and home with raps from her early days on The Come Up DVDs. When she spits on "Did It On'em" it feels like she’s doing so literally, dismissing her peers as underlings and reducing them to her offspring; she made them. There is a much lighter tone to "Super Bass", but it is just as formidable, due in part to the sugary ear candy of frequent collaborator Kane Beatz. It overtakes "Did It On'em", which is pretty much one-note all the way through, because it does so many things right all at once, and it makes great use of her choppy, frenzied flow. —SP
"Did It On'em" is one of Nicki’s best rap singles; "Super Bass" demolishes the option of categorizing her catalog into "rap" or "pop" in the first place. It’s the first of many confounding, transcendent Nicki bonus tracks that recontextualize entire albums, and it’s probably the best of them. And though Nicki’s "Did It On'em" dick-talk might stop listeners in their tracks, there are LEVELS to her "Super Bass" emasculations: "Sigh, SICKening eyes! I can tell that he’s in touch with his feminine side!" —MG
WINNER: "Super Bass"
"Pound the Alarm" vs. "Pills N Potions"
"Pills N Potions" got a generous first round draw, despite pulling an upset, but "Pound the Alarm" is a different animal entirely; it goes just as big without the dueling divas. Though much better in the context of its album, "Pills N Potions" simply doesn’t strike the emotional chord it seeks, and it stumbles through the finish line with a wonky bridge that drags into the big finish. On the other hand, "Pound the Alarm" has no lulls with consistent energy throughout. —SP
For all the hand-wringing over Roman Reloaded's fist-pumpy midsection—pegged as an affront to Hip-Hop Culture [insert cool record-scratch sound effectz here], or a misunderstanding of her "real" skill set, or something something girl music sux—I’ve probably listened to the five-song dance-pop suite from "Starships" to "Beautiful Sinner" more than any other Nicki songs to date. The best part is "Pound the Alarm", a zippy EDM jock jam on which Nicki slobbers, "Hey, you! Jump in this ride!" like someone your mom told you to ignore on your walk home from school. —MG
WINNER: "Pound the Alarm"
Region 2
"Starships" vs. "Your Love"
From a categorical standpoint, these are both pop records, but "Your Love" is undersold as a great rap song, mostly because it masks its top notch lyricism with a shiny veneer of fluttering chimes. There’s no doubt that "Starships" was truer to its base and cranked out a tune that’s hard to escape with strutting guitar riffs and fun-filled party raps, but it can’t stand up to a song with polished and well-executed ideas. Simply put, the writing on "Your Love" is spellbinding enough to overcome "Starships", its light-hearted hedonism, and its roaring chorus. —SP
Sheldon’s right: if there are any two Platonic ideals of Nicki Minaj pop songs, "Starships" and "Your Love" might be the ones. "Starships" is Troll Nicki at her best—it’s not that the Lisa Frank beach romp isn’t sincere, but she certainly knows what buttons to push to spark instant critical outrage. (And she’d deny it, but I’m still convinced Nicki is very much a read-the-comments type. In her recent Complexcover story, she claimed not to keep up with blog commentary, but had an immediate—and hilarious—response to an open letter a dad had written about her "Anaconda" cover art.) But "Your Love" is a lyrical triumph. It’s a master class in this kind of efficient narrative hyper-specificity—how you feel like you already get this guy’s essence off "Might breeze through the ave, might stop at the gym" alone—that Nicki pulls off like no one else in rap, and one on which writers across all mediums could do to take some notes. —MG
WINNER: "Your Love"
"Va Va Voom" vs. "Beez in the Trap"
These two songs couldn’t be more on opposite ends of the spectrum; it is possibly the most dramatic stretch for a Pop Nicki vs. Rap Nicki duel short of throwing an actual mixtape cut into the fray, and while there isn’t much common ground between the two, they both attempt to push Nicki’s two divergent sounds forward. "Va Va Voom" is what would happen if you tried to replicate the success of "Starships" and "Super Bass" at the same time, and it does an amicable job repurposing old strategies into a Dr. Luke-produced template. But even with its big time crossover appeal it just doesn’t have enough to go head-to-head with the dribbling sonar of "Beez in the Trap" and Nicki’s apathetic murmurings: "I don’t know, man; I’m shitting on your whole life." —SP
Yep, "Va Va Voom" and "Beez in the Trap" represent both poles of "Nicki Songs For Screaming From Car Windows With Your Sister," which I’ve done so many times with both. "Va Va Voom" is vampy fun, but it’s not touching "Beez in the Trap", Nicki’s swag-rap opus. Until this year, Nicki kept it pretty low-key that she was way more in touch with of-the-minute rap trends than critics gave her credit for, but "Beez" let everybody know she was paying attention. —MG
WINNER: "Beez in the Trap"
Region 3
"BedRock" vs. "Monster"
This is a clash of star-studded lineups, as Nicki, Lil Wayne, Drake, and the Young Money camp take on Nicki, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Rick Ross (kind of), and Justin Vernon. "BedRock" was the first Young Money single to feature all of the imprint’s prominent players, and it plays like a showcase of upcoming talent framed around taking a woman to bed and the hubris surrounding assumed inflated sexual status. Nicki’s perspective brings balance to what would’ve otherwise been a cesspool of machismo, and the song is undeniably a good time, but it simply can’t compete with a juggernaut like "Monster", which is dark, brooding, and lays claim to arguably the best and most popular rap verse of Nicki Minaj’s career. —SP
Both tracks are introductions of sorts: "BedRock" was Nicki’s official introduction to Top 40 airwaves, and "Monster", her introduction to the arena of "Best Rapper Alive" contenders. But that’s where the similarities end, as far as Nicki’s concerned. Her "BedRock" verse is charming and coy, revealing flashes of weirdness but ultimately playing it cool. "Monster" whips out her freak flag and plants it on the moon. "BedRock" never stood a chance. —MG
WINNER: "Monster"
"Beauty and a Beat" vs. "Dance (A$$)" (Remix)
There aren’t particularly inspired performances from the leading men on "Beauty and a Beat" or "Dance (A$$)", though both do their part; these are two songs that stand primarily on the strength of Nicki’s feature verse and her natural charisma as a performer. That said, "Dance (A$$)" gets the nod in favor of its contagious refrain and its rinse-cycle MC Hammer sample. —SP
Sheldon hit on a part of Nicki’s feature prowess that has always stuck out to me as super important: Nicki is one of the millions of women who consistently does men’s homework for them, and watches them celebrate the spoils of her hard work. As someone intimately familiar with this practice, it hits very close to home when I watch Nicki single-handedly save otherwise unremarkable male radio jams from their own mediocrity, as on Bieber’s surface-deep "Beauty and a Beat" (which got as far as #5 on the Hot 100 with its bold promises to party like it’s 3012) and Big Sean’s "Dance (A$$)", which has been certified double platinum, and probably no thanks to the G.O.O.D. Music MC’s lyrical clunkers. That said, Nicki’s contributions to the latter got the phrase "Kiss my ass and my anus" on the radio. —MG
WINNER: "Dance (A$$)" (Remix)
Region 4
"Bottoms Up" vs. "Letting Go (Dutty Love)"
Nicki has often proven herself to be the perfect complement, able to adapt to any setting and circumstance, and both of these songs are a reflection of that versatility. They were also both a part of her prolific 2010 feature run, one that spawned many of the features on this list and one that is only rivaled (in recent memory) by Lil Wayne’s 2008. On "Bottoms Up", she raps as if unhinged, and it is the deepest she’s ever been in character, performing much of the verse as Roman, which is no small task. But rapping in patois, which she does on "Letting Go", is a far more difficult task, and she does so effortlessly, moving stride for stride with Jamaican-born Sean Kingston. —SP
This was the toughest match-up of Round 2. It was painful to let go of "Bottoms Up", one of the most unpredictable guest spots of Nicki’s career, on which I count no less than three iconically spazzy oneliners. (The short-circuiting cyborg stutters of "salt around that RIM RIM RIM RIM"; the out-of-nowhere Anna Nicole Smith eulogy; the demented baby-gurgle of a falsetto on "all around the woooorld!") But it’s a good chance to address a commonly upheld fallacy regarding Nicki’s lyricism, one that’s applicable elsewhere in rap discourse, too. The weirder the better, it often seems—and make no mistake, Weird Nicki is often her most delightful manifestation. But fixating too obsessively on her zaniness—the alter-egos, the voice-throwing, the jazz-handsy antics of an ex-theater kid—is a little like eating Lucky Charms for every meal: it’s fucking dope, but by no means sustainable. "Letting Go" doesn’t have the shock value of "Bottoms Up"; it’s just a super-solid, super-sexy R&B/dancehall jam that makes me nostalgic for that period between '03-'04 where dancehall crossovers regularly made it to American radio. —MG
WINNER: "Letting Go (Dutty Love)"
"Turn Me On" vs. "Where Them Girls At"
In a weird twist of fate, the two singles from David Guetta’s fifth studio album, Nothing But the Beat, meet in a second round showdown of EDM-tinged radio hits. "Where Them Girls At" is a dancey hip house number with a protruding downbeat that jumps whenever met with electro synths, and she splits hook duty with Flo Rida, who is comfortably in his element. The visible difference between the two is Nicki’s rap verse on "Where Them Girls At", which is completely discombobulated, and fascinatingly so, but that isn’t what separates them: "Turn Me On" has way less personality, and is a cookie cutter dance pop that never really gives Minaj the space to flourish. —SP
I’m glad Sheldon brought up the hip house element of "Where Them Girls At". Speaking very generally, mainstream rap’s attempts at cashing in on the popularity of EDM have rarely gone over well, certainly not compared to the relative success R&B’s biggest acts have had fusing the genres in the past few years. Nicki doesn’t always pull it off—case in point, half-baked banger "Turn Me On" and its video full of sentient sex dolls—but when she does, as on her deranged "Where Them Girls At" verse, she’s one of very few rappers that makes an even remotely convincing argument for an EDM-age hip-house revival (though the fact that I shuddered softly as I typed those words might argue otherwise). —MG
WINNER: "Where Them Girls At"