Yet Another Year In America March 18, 2010

[koganbot]

Rihanna finally returns to #1, her old accustomed spot two years ago, "Need You Now" having to settle for #2 again. As for new music, I'm kind of... um... well... yes, um. This is about as "um" a week as there's ever been.

Comments

[alexmacpherson]

"My Chick Bad" is OK, though for every great line ('comin' out swingin' like TIGER WOODS' WIFE") there's a terrible example of that awful trend for substituting jokes with ellipses (covered thoroughly here) - "I fill her up...BALLOONS!", god just STFU. Minaj's verse is pretty great - love the Nightmare Nicki intonation on "guess who's playing Freddie?" and the whole "shoe game crazy, the mental asylum looking for me" riff, but even she has to get a shitty "it's going down...BASEMENT!" "pun" in there. She's awesome in the video though.

[koganbot]

The delayed-payoff gambit can be great - remember the Bangz' "My ass out of this world... Asteroids!" - but the line has to be good, or at least a surprise.

It's been such a strange couple of years: there's the sudden freedom to try out all sorts of styles and rhythms, with loads of ideas and lots of potential, but so many failures too, and who becomes a star and who doesn't almost seems random. But at least Nicki's work ethic is paying off.