The Singles Jukebox

Does Nicki Minaj have a problem? We bring you the numbers…

[Video]
[4.12]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: Nicki’s hook is so drenched in autotune that it almost sounds like she’s singing with gauze in her mouth. That, combined with the exhaustingly paced arpeggios, makes for an exhausting minute and a half before Lil Baby’s verse finally puts things in focus. Nicki’s closing verse mercifully hints at a version of this song which could have existed, one where her energy and charisma was concentrated instead of all over the place. 
[5]

Andy Hutchins: Over a tinny fanfare that grates — and dominates some weak percussion; is this post-drill? — Nicki sounds like an aging boxer looks, taking half a verse to find the beat and throwing punches that don’t hit like they used to. The recently plasmic Lil Baby is either in or approaching his prime, though: He rattles off jab after jab, and they mostly connect, even if he’s saying “screwing” like it’s the ’70s or bragging about being friends with a billionaire (no, that billionaire being Meek Mill’s friend does not render him cool.) Tune in for that round.
[5]

Ady Thapliyal: Nicki Minaj is infamously shit at choosing first singles so we shouldn’t read too much into this misfire. Still, the point of a back-to-basics buzz single is to show how much you’ve grown. If you listen to mixtape Nicki tackling this same idea, you only hear how much she’s regressed. 
[2]

Thomas Inskeep: The problem is that you’ve run completely out of ideas, Nicki.
[2]

Andrew Karpan: Not so much a song as a collection of scattered Nicki Minaj vibes and flows, this “greatest hits” approach is surprisingly satisfying: after spending some time struggling to move copies of vaguely cringe records with names like “Chun-Li,” it feels like she’s finally found a way to deliver the streaming giants something both unobjectionable enough and that doesn’t include 6ix9ine. Instead, there’s Lil Baby, an amiable presence on the last year of pop rap songs since breaking out with one of those long albums that are great to work out to. He doesn’t go “super-duper hard” here, so much as phones it in with a kind of professional grace, rapping as if vaguely surprised at the bag he was handed. “A Nicki Minaj song? Why not?,” seems to be the overall message here. Problems? What problems? 
[5]

Alfred Soto: With the detritus of many, many failed comebacks and quashed hopes strewn across the years, Nicki Minaj has nothing to lose. She sounds crisp, thankfully, though in the verse before Lil Baby’s entrance she audibly sounds as if she’s holding her nose. 
[5]

Edward Okulicz: Nicki Minaj really just sounds like she knows what she’s good at but doesn’t apply this with any force or art anymore. There’s huge parts of this track where she could be anyone, and then she puts in some of her characteristic Minajisms as if she needs to project her identity. But these things aren’t distinctive anymore, they’re kind of desperate. At her best, she made tracks she must have spent an eternity fine-tuning lyrics and delivery on sound as if she was spitting them for the first time. This sounds underthought and overlaboured.
[4]

Ian Mathers: Used to be Nicki would be the one busting into the middle of a fine but slightly ponderous rap track to light it up for the length of her spot, and now she’s the one doing the framing. The ciiiiiiiiiiiircle of liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiife…
[5]