Suspect this might just be one single too far for the Minj…
[Video]
[4.25]
Jonathan Bogart: It was one of the lowlights of Pink Friday almost a year ago, and — especially in a post-“Super Bass” world — it still is.
[3]
Anthony Easton: I love that this was released on Sept 11, with Minaj in full messiah mode — an amazing example of (perhaps on purpose?) missing the point bad taste. A would-be generic ballad, but the video, with the plane crashes and the suburban streets, and the tasteful smoke grey tones–and Minaj swaying back and forth in full ball gown and pink wig, on the wing of a downed air craft–that’s some John Waters’ level crazy shit
[3]
Jer Fairall: Nicki Minaj further sedated by more forgettable mush — the end result, I’d like to suspect, of the public failing to turn “Girls Fall Like Dominoes” into the summer jam it should’ve been, and thus getting the Nicki they deserve, dull-ass Rihanna hooks and all.
[3]
Alfred Soto: Although Monica has lost her late nineties luster, she would have been a more human choice for a triumphalist anthem requiring sweetly voiced ballast. Rihanna, a parvenu, only registers when she and Minaj join forces in the last third. Even the cracks in her voice sound Pro Tooled.
[4]
Katherine St Asaph: Faux-inspirational quagmire pierced only by Rihanna’s sudden soubrette, and even then only for seconds.
[4]
Jonathan Bradley: “I came to win” could be triumphalist Khaledian boilerplate, but “Fly” is engaging not because its performers are victorious but because they haven’t been defeated. Minaj’s claim of “such a heavy burden placed upon me,” sounds lived, and so when she describes how far she’s come — “Yankee Stadium with Jays and Kanyes” — she appears slightly awed. It’s not her strongest performance lyrically, but she lends substantial emotional resonance to the track’s rather simple sentiments.
[7]
Dan Weiss: One of the most beautiful pieces of evidence that even a breakout pop star can go over people’s heads simply by force of anti-will. They only wanted a cred-grubbing rapper. This is another way of “killing it.”
[9]
Brad Shoup: Well, I wasn’t wondering before when someone is going to rap over Noxagt’s cover of “Regions of May”. This is the limpest text Minaj has submitted to radio: it’s filled with pronouns and prepositions forced into double and triple duty. Rihanna functions here as one of those greeting cards that plays music when opened. Rotem’s screwup comes around the 3:12 mark, when he fucks up the synthbed transition. An embarrassment all around.
[1]