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.
"Your Love" vs. "Monster"
Nicki’s "Monster" feature is a behemoth of a guest verse. It is one of the great cameos in recent memory. But it’s also bigger than that. It’s a step toward destroying rap’s gender gap. Gender politics in rap have always played a role in the greatest of all-time discussions; men and women are separated categorically and there’s never any mention of women in the Top 5 unless it’s qualified as a list for women. This disparity is still prevalent right now, and it is ingrained in the fabric of the genre. But Nicki has been able to combat the bias by excelling on the biggest stages against the biggest names in rap.
At the start of her career, as she was breaking out, Nicki rapped so well that rumors began to circulate that Lil Wayne was writing her raps for her. The implication was—and always has been —that a woman isn’t capable of rapping that well; there’s no way she could be rapping this because she isn’t a dude. A dude must be rapping it. She continued to rap circles around her competitors, despite the murmuring, and with incredible work ethic she knocked down the walls that separated her from rap legitimacy, contributing verses to songs from anyone who asked (Jeffree Starr? Eric Benet? Pritty Boy??). During that stretch, in late October 2010, "Monster" went viral as a part of the GOOD Fridays series and the whispers stopped all at once. A new conversation began to arise in its place: this girl is completely out-rapping these dudes.
"Monster" was the first time the conversation was ever about a female out-classing her male contemporaries, and in this case, those contemporaries were Jay-Z and Kanye West, the royalty rap poster boys. This verse in particular played a huge role in establishing Nicki Minaj as a top tier talent who dispelled gender distinctions in rap, and it is—for better or worse—the standard she is held to. Nicki maneuvering between those two points remains one of the most impressive feats in all of rap. Never has a female emcee inserted herself into the male-driven debate with such force: not Lauryn, not Missy, not Kim. —SP
There’s Nicki Minaj, serious contender for "best rapper alive," and then there’s Nicki Minaj, writer of poetry. "Your Love" isn’t the deepest song at first glance: it’s just a love song. But it’s a metaphysical kind of love, the kind that makes you get all existential and start thinking about past lives, even though you always thought that stuff was kind of dumb. It’s a hilariously mundane love, the kind no one else but you finds significant (Nicki’s lover’s du-rag is endowed with a Biblical, Samson-like magic), and it’s one that defies the commonly understood laws of the time-space continuum. For me, "Your Love" comes down to this one line: "Anyway, I think I met him some time before/ In a different life, or where I record." Mythology, humanity, and the escapist power of art, all tossed off as an "anyway" by a bashful genius: who else but Nicki Minaj? —MG
WINNER: "Your Love"
