mixtape maestro

Seeing as though Nicki Minaj is not only behind some of the most memorable cameo raps of the past twelve months, but is pretty much the only female rapper anyone talks about these days, it’s unfortunate that her official solo career hasn’t gotten off to such a great start.

First we had “Massive Attack”, a tuneless earache of a record that greatly deserved it’s blink-and-you-missed-it chart tenure; but to quickly follow up that flop with the not-much-better “Your Love”, a limp R&B ballad slightly re-polished from it’s original mixtape-based incarnation? What’s really going on behind the scenes?

“Your Love” is definitely a stronger bid for crossover play thanks to its smooth sampling of Annie Lennox’ 1995 Grammy-winner “No More I Love You’s” (itself, a cover of a modest mid-’80′s UK hit by English new wave duo The Lover Speaks), but the decades-old nostalgia factor can’t really rescue what’s essentially a boring number, as Nicki is heard drifting through two drab verses that express her attraction to some thug hunk she just knows she shared the greatest love of all with in previous lives (“I think I met him in the sky/ When I was a geisha he was a samurai”. Yeah, okay).

Throw in a major lack of the crazy vocal inflections and goofy one-liners we’ve come to expect from Nicki, and an ill-advised, self-squeaked hook that grows more and more grating with each repeating, and we’re left scratching our heads wondering what the hell to make of it all. Does Nicki really think that releasing what sounds to be some old Blaque outtake from the late-’90′s is really what the people are demanding of her?

Single officially drops June 1st, but in the meanwhile check out a remix of the track featuring (of all people) Flo Rida, as well as the new video for the Wayne/ Minaj Rebirth collabo “Knockout”.

DL: “Your Love (Flo Rida Remix)” (alt)