Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded

Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded is the second studio album by American recording artist Nicki Minaj, released on April 2, 2012, by Young Money, Cash Money, and Universal Republic. The title references her debut album Pink Friday and her promotional single Roman Reloaded.

The album was recorded between 2011 and 2012, and was produced by a variety of musicians and producers including Hit-Boy, Dr. Luke, Ester Dean, Rico Beats, RedOne and Oak. Minaj worked with many artists who were featured on the album including Cam’ron, Rick Ross, 2 Chainz, Lil Wayne, Nas, Drake, Young Jeezy, Chris Brown, Bobby V and Beenie Man. The album's music is divided by the first half's hip hop tracks and the second half's pop and dance songs, the latter of which incorporates disco, teen pop, R&B, Eurodance, Europop and dance-pop styles. According to Minaj, she said the concept of the album was to feature more "fun" music, as she stated that her previous studio album was a "little too revealing, too emotional at times". The iTunes version of the album features a press conference of her and producers in its production.

Upon its release, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded received generally mixed reviews from music critics, though it was a commercial success worldwide. It became Minaj's second number one album on the Billboard 200 and reached the top of the charts in countries including Canada, Scotland, United Kingdom and component charts in the United States. It also peaked inside the top five in Australia and New Zealand. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified it platinum for shipments of one million copies.

Six official singles have been released from the album thus far: "Starships", "Pound the Alarm", "Beez in the Trap", "Right by My Side", and "Va Va Voom". The first three charted inside the top fifty on the Billboard Hot 100, and the latter peaking at 6 on the UK R&B Chart. The singles were also a success worldwide, with "Starships" becoming Minaj's best-charting single to date, where it has charted in the top spot in countries including Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Norway, component charts in the United States and became the highest peaking single for a female rapper in the United Kingdom. Minaj embarked on the Pink Friday Tour and the Pink Friday: Reloaded Tour to promote the album.

Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded will be re-released on November 19, 2012, as Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded – The Re-Up. "The Boys" was released to the iTunes Store as its first single, fifth overall, on September 13, 2012.

Background
Following the release and success of Minaj's previous album, Pink Friday, Cash Money co-CEO, Brian "Birdman" Williams announced to Billboard that Minaj was aiming for a first quarter release in 2012. In November 2011, Minaj announced on Twitter that the album would be released on February 14, 2012, but later in January 2012 she pushed the album to April 3, 2012. The album puts focus on the return of Roman Zolanski, one of Minaj's alter egos that was first featured on her 2010 debut album, Pink Friday. The standard artwork was released on March 1, 2012 and the deluxe artwork was revealed on March 8, 2012, both through Twitter. The deluxe edition of the album includes three bonus tracks, some of which are packaged with a T-shirt of the artwork.

Nicki spoke on the concept behind the albums saying "Sometimes I felt the first album was a little too revealing, too emotional at times, and the other thing about your first album is that you’ve had all these emotions pent up inside to release and that’s what you do on your debut. On the second album I was more concerned about just having fun."

Recording and composition
When Minaj was asked on Twitter to describe the album in one word, she tweeted "freedom". In an interview following the premiere, Minaj told Seacrest, "I've never had this much fun recording music in my life. My first album I was very guarded. I felt like I was making music to please everyone else. I had to be politically correct, but this album I am just creating music, and it there's such a big difference. Literally in the studio we were cracking up laughing, having fun, and enjoying ourselves. The music itself you're going to get every side that I've ever shown and then a little bit extra. I've tried to make it very, very balanced, because I don't ever want to be boxed in, and that's always what drives me. So I made a very diverse album." She added that with her first album, she "was a too open Nicki Minaj. It felt more to me like a diary, the songs were more introspective and stuff like that...with this particular album I felt that it was time to give people a moment to enjoy the lyrics, and enjoy the beats, and enjoy the voices. When I was going to do my first album people would say, 'What is she going to talk about? Is she just going to talk about sex?' So I made it my business to make an album that did not talk about sex at all. I made it my business to make an album that wasn't a vulgar album, because [on] my mix tapes I was very, very...outlandish on my mix tapes. With this album I'm going back to not necessarily to that sound, but that feeling. The feeling of 'I don't care what you think!' That's what it is."

Minaj worked with producers including Alex da Kid, Alex P, Andrew "Pop" Wansel, Benny Blanco, Blackout, Carl Falk, Cirkut, David Guetta, DJ Diamond Kuts, Dreamlab, Dr. Luke, Flip, Hitboy, Jimmy Joker, J.R. Rotem, Kane Beatz, Kenoe, KoOol Kojak, M.E. Productions, Oak, Pink Friday Productions, Rami Yacoub, RedOne, Rico Beats, Ryan & Smitty, Nikhil S., T-Minus Minaj also worked with several artists including Cam’ron, Rick Ross, 2 Chainz, Lil Wayne, Nas, Drake, Young Jeezy, Chris Brown, Bobby V, and Beenie Man.

Unlike Pink Friday, which featured R&B and Hip-Hop music, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded is divided by the first half's hip hop tracks and the second half's pop and dance songs, the latter of which incorporates disco, teen pop, R&B, Eurodance, Europop, and dance-pop styles. Statement is cited with the following sources:

Singles
"Starships" was digitally released as the album's lead single on February 14, 2012. It received mixed reviews from music critics, praising the musical composition and production, but criticized Minaj's rapping and felt it was a filler to the album. "Starships" debuted at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at number five, marking her second solo arrival in the top 10 of the chart, after "Super Bass". The song was certified 3x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) with sales of three million copies in that country. The song also received chart success worldwide, including Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, France, United Kingdom and Canada. An accompanying music video was shot in Hawaii. "Starships" is Minaj's best charting single to date.

"Right By My Side", featuring American rapper and singer Chris Brown, was released as the album's second single on March 27, 2012. It was only released to radio stations in the United States. The song received positive reviews from music critics, praising Minaj's adaption to more demure style, as well as praising the collaboration and the production of the song, while some felt that Minaj not rapping in the song was a dismiss. "Right by My Side" peaked at number fifty-one on Billboard Hot 100 and number. A music video was shot for the single and premiered on Vevo.

"Beez In The Trap", featuring American rapper 2 Chainz, was released as the album's third single on April 24, 2012. It was released only in the United States. The song received positive reviews from music critics, praising Minaj's performance. The song peaked at number forty-eight on the Billboard Hot 100, and also managed to chart in Ireland and component charts in the United States. An accompanying music video was shot for the single, featuring Minaj squatting down wearing a blonde wig in a pink turtleneck onesie, with barb wire as a foreground. The video received positive reviews as well.

"Pound The Alarm" was released as the album's second international single (after "Starships"), fourth overall, in July 2012. A eurodance and house influenced song, it received mixed reviews from music critics, praising the inclusion to the album while some critics criticized the similarities to the previous single "Starships" and as well felt it was a filler to the album. The song was a commercial success as well, peaking in the top ten in countries including Poland, New Zealand, Belgium, United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia. The video was shot in Trinidad at Queen’s Park Savannah on July 4, 2012 and what was seen as a carnival themed video. The music video received positive reviews from critics as well, praising its fun nature and color.

"Va Va Voom" was released as the third UK single, fifth overall, on October 8, 2012. It also serves as the lead single of Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded - The Re-Up in the United Kingdom. Following its single release, "Va Va Voom" peaked at 20 and 6 on the UK Official Chart and UK R&B Chart, respectively.

"Marilyn Monroe" is set to be released as its sixth overall single on December 17, 2012.

Promotional singles
The album's first promotional single, "Roman in Moscow" on December 2, 2011. It debuted at number 64 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also charted at number 88 on the Canadian Hot 100 and at number 84 on the UK Singles Chart. Minaj initially said that the single "is like a teaser to Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, when I say it's a teaser, it's like a trailer to the movie, it's like setting the stage and I just wanted to touch the surface. It's the wackest thing on Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded". She elaborated on the lyrics of the song: "Well, [Roman] was there [in Moscow] secretly because [his mother] Martha wanted him to go there, so they put him in this thing with monks and nuns; they were trying to rehabilitate him, but I can't tell exactly what happened, you'll just see it in the video format, but let's just say he got out of there." The music video was filmed on December 18, 2011, but was never released.

The album's second promotional single, "Stupid Hoe", a happycore song, released to iTunes on December 20, 2011 and produced by Diamond Kuts, credited as T. Dunham. It debuted at number 81 on the Billboard Hot 100. Minaj filmed the video for "Stupid Hoe" on December 19 and December 20, 2011. The music video was released January 20, 2012 on Vevo. It attained 4.8 million views within 24 hours of its release, breaking the Vevo record. Following the release of the video, the song jumped to number 59 on the Hot 100. It also charted at number 63 on the UK Singles Chart and at number 87 on the Canadian Hot 100.

"Roman Reloaded" featuring Lil Wayne was premiered on February 23, 2012 on radio station Hot97. It was released as a digital download on February 24, 2012 as the album's third promotional single. It debuted at number 70 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Other songs
"Turn Me On", a single from David Guetta's album Nothing but the Beat, appears on the deluxe edition of Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded. It reached number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Minaj performed "Roman Holiday" live at the 54th annual Grammy Awards Ceremony on February 12, 2012. The performance, choreographed by Lady Gaga's former choreographer Laurieann Gibson, was much discussed and highly controversial. Following the album's release, three songs debuted on Billboard's "Bubbling Under Hot 100" chart, "Marilyn Monroe" at number 4, "Roman Holiday" at number 13, and "Whip It" at number 23. Elsewhere, "Whip It" debuted at number 98 on the UK Singles Chart, number 85 on the Canadian Hot 100, number 91 in Japan, and number 63 in Australia.

It had been announced that "Champion" would be released as a single in the summer of 2012; however with plans for a re-release of the album underway, its release has scrapped. A music video was released for "I Am Your Leader" on August 24, 2012.

Marketing
In April 2012, Minaj held album signings in New York City, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and London. Minaj traveled to the UK for a week of promotion in April. HMV held a competition for fans, where 500 winners would get the chance to meet Minaj on April 19, 2012, in one of their stores in Bayswater, London, where she would sign their albums. Minaj also appeared on The Graham Norton Show, which was aired on April 20, 2012. On the same day, she visited BBC Radio 1 for an interview with Nick Grimshaw.

Live performances
On February 12, 2012, Minaj performed "Roman Holiday" at the 54th Grammy Awards. It was the first song ever performed on the Grammy stage by a solo female rapper. The performance borrowed elements of the classic horror film, The Exorcist, and was the most highly discussed performance of the night, as well as sparking controversy. Minaj said in an interview with Rap-Up “I had this vision for [alter-ego, Roman Zolanski] to be sort of exorcised—or actually he never gets exorcised—but people around him tell him he’s not good enough because he’s not normal, he’s not blending in with the average Joe. And so his mother is scared and the people around him are afraid because they’ve never seen anything like him. He wanted to show that not only is he amazing and he’s sure of himself and confident, but he’s never gonna change, he’s never gonna be exorcised. Even when they throw the holy water on him, he still rises above.” MTV said Minaj's "Roman Holiday" "was the most elaborate of the night's Grammy performances and (had) everyone talking." Rolling Stone's Steve Knopper called the performance "disturbing, but still somehow great."

On February 26, 2012, Minaj performed "Starships" live for the first time along with "Moment 4 Life", "Turn Me On" and "Super Bass" at the 2012 NBA All-Star Game. She has also performed "Starships" on the eleventh series of American Idol on March 29, 2012. On April 4, 2012, Minaj performed a 40-minute mini-concert for BET's 106 & Park. Minaj performed "Starships", "Right by My Side" and "Super Bass" in Times Square, hosted by Nokia, on April 7, 2012.

Touring
To further promote Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, Nicki embarked on her first tour, the Pink Friday Tour which began in May 2012. The tour comprised 45 show dates, 22 in North America, 4 in Asia, 17 in Europe and 3 in Australia. While promoting her second album in the UK, Minaj revealed tour dates for major cities in England. The singer officially announced the tour via Twitter on May 1, 2012&mdash;showcasing the stage resembling Barbie Dreamhouse. Minaj stated that she will play radio and outdoor festivals in conduction with arenas and theatres. She also mentions the tour will have an "intimate yet big" feel. Laurieann Gibson will serve as creative director and choreographer for the tour.

Nicki will also embark on the Pink Friday: Reloaded Tour to support the album, which will visit arenas throughout 2012.

Critical response
Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded received generally mixed reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 60, based on 30 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews". Although he complimented its first-half as "an amusement park for production lovers", Allmusic editor David Jeffries criticized the album's "iffy pop" and called it "a frustrating mix of significant and skippable." Kyle Anderson of Entertainment Weekly praised its "vivid prog-rap bangers", but viewed that too many tracks "leave Minaj simply treading the territory of other radio divas." Adam Fleischer of XXL wrote that the album is "a quasi-concept album revolving around Roman, without ever fully fleshing out the character; it’s also part rap album, part pop album without finding a way to seamlessly balance the two pursuits." Randall Roberts of the Los Angeles Times commended its "minimal, bouncy hip-hop tracks" for highlighting Minaj's "charm and achievement", but wrote that the album "drives off a cliff" with "dance pop songs as simple as they are generic", and ultimately called it "a disjointed, artistically confused release".

Billboard commented that "Minaj spends more time exploring her musical identity on Roman Reloaded than she does perfecting one, which makes the album sound bloated and rushed." David Amidon of PopMatters accused her of "doubling down on her cartoonish elements" and criticized its first half as "very poorly thought out rap music masquerading as pop", while panning its second half as "frilly, unessential pop music". John Calvert of The Quietus described the album as "pop postmodernity in an advanced state of hollow, banal meaningless[ness]" and panned its stretch of "conservative, cheering, melodically powerful pop songs" as having "absolutely nothing to do with Minaj's art". Kitty Empire of The Observer criticized its pop-end as "an aggressive bid for Gaga's territory." Slant Magazine's Matthew Cole panned it as a "mediocre rap album" and wrote of Minaj's performance, "When she isn't rapping, Minaj conveys no personality". Emily Mackay of NME commented that the album "shows range, sure, but it feels so disparate that it's just baffling", adding that "There's eccentric, and then there's zany for the sake of it."

However, BBC Music's Al Fox commended the album's direction and wrote that it "unfolds an immeasurable amalgam of genres and inspirations, all fused together in a diamond-encrusted bubble of futuristic, day-glo hip hop. The energy is palpable, the pace rarely lets up, and personality pervades throughout." Rolling Stone writer Jody Rosen called it a "filler-free mega-pop album" and commented that "the energy never flags". Jessica Hopper of Spin praised Minaj's "rap offerings" as "nearly flawless" and wrote of the album's portion of pop tracks, "Her artistic potency dissolves, and she's just another well-finessed quirky diva". Tom Ewing of The Guardian complimented its "half-dozen tracks of blistering, filthy, idea-jammed hip-hop" and wrote in conclusion, "the record is too long, horribly inconsistent, and makes no attempt to marry its rap and pop impulses. But that doesn't matter – at their best the styles are wedded anyway by a particular frenzy, a sense that Minaj comes with no off switch or lower gear." Genevieve Koski of The A.V. Club called the album "an intermittently great, but ultimately scattershot effort that’s undermined by its efforts to please everyone". In his consumer guide for MSN Music, Robert Christgau gave the album an A– rating, indicating "the kind of garden-variety good record that is the great luxury of musical micromarketing and overproduction."

Commercial performance
The album debuted in at number 1 on the UK Albums Chart and the UK R&B Albums Chart. Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded is the first album by female rap artist to chart at number one in the United Kingdom, with first week sales of 47,000 copies. The album also debuted at number 1 on the Scottish Albums Chart. On the Australian Albums Chart, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded debuted at number 5 and on the Australian Urban Albums Chart it debuted at number 2. In Mexico, the album reached the top 40 in its first week of release. For the week ending April 10, the album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart selling 253,000 copies in its first week. This marked Minaj's second number-one album in that country following her last studio album Pink Friday which peaked at number one in February 2011 and selling 375,000 in its first week. As of August 19, 2012, the album has sold 627,000 copies in the US. On June 22, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, for shipments of one million copies in the US.

The Re-Up
Minaj announced at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards that Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded will be re-released in November 19, 2012 as Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded – The Re-Up, saying, "I’m putting lots of new songs on there and I’m actually going to drop my new single like next week. Barbz, you are gonna spaz. You are gonna love it. You are gonna go crazy!" One of the tracks revealed by Minaj was a collaboration with Lil Wayne. Its artwork was released on October 11, 2012.

The re-release's first single, fifth overall, "The Boys", with Cassie, was released on September 13, 2012.

Track listing

 * Notes:
 * (*) denotes co-producer.
 * (^) denotes additional production.
 * On the Best Buy version of the album, Marissa Bregman is listed as a featured vocalist on "Roman Holiday"

Personnel
Credits for Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded:

Musicians

 * Nicki Minaj-Executive Producer,
 * Martin Sandberg - Vocals
 * Carl Falk - Guitar, Producer, Vocals, Composer, Mixing, Instrumentation
 * Wayne Hector - Vocals
 * Jeanette Olsson - Vocals (Background)
 * Ariel Chobaz - Engineer, Vocal Editing, Vocal Producer, Mixing
 * RedOne - Vocals (Background), Producer, Instrumentation, Vocal Editing
 * Marissa Bregman - Vocal
 * Rachael Findlen - Vocals
 * Patrizia Valentina - Vocals
 * Eve Boase - Vocals
 * Kalenna Harper - Vocals
 * Kelly Sheehan - Vocals
 * Teddy Sky - Vocals (Background)
 * Rutger "Ruffi" Kroese - Vocal Mixing
 * Bilal "The Chef" Hajji - Vocals (Background)
 * AJ Junior - Vocals (Background)
 * Mohombi - Vocals

Production

 * Joshua Berkman - A&R
 * Dwayne "Tha President" - CarterComposer, Executive Producer
 * Finis "KY" - WhiteEngineer
 * Koool - KojakProgramming, Producer, Instrumentation
 * Rami - Producer, Mixing, Instrumentation, Vocal Editing
 * Noah Shebib - Engineer
 * Alex Da Kid - Producer
 * Gelly Kusuma - Engineer
 * Alex P. - Producer, Engineer, Vocal Editing, Instrumentation
 * Brian "Big Bass" GardnerMastering
 * Donald "Tixie" DixonEngineer
 * Stuart White - Engineer
 * T-Minus - Producer
 * Ronald "Slim Tha Don" Williams - Executive Producer
 * Donnie Meadows - Production Coordination
 * Michael "Banger" Cadahia - Engineer
 * Elizabeth Gallardo - Recording Assistant
 * Bryan "Baby Birdman" Williams - Executive Producer
 * Trevor Muzzy - Engineer, Mixing, Vocal Editing
 * Noel Cadastre - Recording Assistant
 * Cortez Bryant - Executive Producer
 * Black Raw - Mastering, Mixing, Additional Production
 * Safaree "SB" Samuels - Composer, Executive Producer, A&R


 * Pop Wansel - Producer
 * Rico Beats - Producer
 * Clint Gibbs - Recording Assistant
 * Smitty - Producer
 * Lukasz Gottwald - Composer, Vocals
 * Jimmy Joker - Producer, Instrumentation
 * Katie Mitzell - Production Coordination
 * Cirkut - Programming, Instrumentation, Producer
 * Scott "Yarmov" Yarmovsky - Production Coordination
 * Jermaine Preyan - Executive Producer
 * Ryan - Producer
 * Jon Sher - Mixing Assistant, Recording Assistant
 * Jahshari Wilson - Cover Design
 * JusIce Beatz - Producer
 * Nikhil Seethram - Composer, Producer
 * JProof - Producer
 * Flippa123 - Producer
 * DJ Diamond Kuts - Producer
 * Tim Roberts - Mixing Assistant
 * Serban Ghenea - Mixing
 * John Rivers - Engineer
 * Kane - Producer
 * Benny Blanco - Programming, Producer, Instrumentation
 * Blackout - Producer
 * Hype Williams - Photography
 * Ke'Noe - Producer
 * Dr. Luke - Programming, Producer, Instrumentation
 * David Guetta - Composer, Producer
 * Phil Seaford - Mixing Assistant
 * Nicholas Cooper - Vocal Producer
 * Tanisha Broadwater - Production Coordination
 * J.R. Rotem - Producer
 * Irene Richter - Production Coordination
 * Giorgio Tuinfort - Producer
 * Dream - labProducer
 * Hit Boy - Producer

Certifications
{|class="wikitable" !Country !Provider !Certification
 * Australia
 * style="text-align:center;"|ARIA
 * style="text-align:center;"|Gold
 * United States
 * style="text-align:center;"|RIAA
 * style="text-align:center;"|Platinum
 * style="text-align:center;"|RIAA
 * style="text-align:center;"|Platinum