The queen of rap shows why she still holds on to the throne

TODAY is Nicki Minaj's 41st birthday, and one of many surprises on her fifth album is the arrival of Billie Eilish's haunting voice as the first sound, on a song that sees the usually imperious Trinidadian rapper expressing vulnerability as a mother and wife.

- David Smyth

RAP Nicki Minaj Pink Friday 2 (Island) 

"Why would anyone want to love me?/Rich, yes, but are you happy?" The Eilish song she samples is When the Party's Over.

Is the biggest, brashest, most outrageous queen of rap in the process of abdicating? In the years since her last release in 2018 she's married a man she's known since high school in New York and had a son, who she says in the song is now three.