Nicki Minaj

Credit: AP Photo

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Nicki Minaj may have announced that the title of her new album would be “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded”  months ago, but it’s clear that the title track was just recorded.

Want to know just how fresh the tune is? The full-on rap song (forget about any of the pop/electro featured on the yummy “Starships”) references her Feb. 12 performance on the Grammys:  “You mad cause I’m at the Grammys with the Vatican” she says about about 50 seconds in.  The production is hard-core with a  militant beat throughout the mid-tempo track and a fuzzy hum in the background to heighten the anxiety.

She’s taking “reloaded” quite seriously as we hear the spinning of a gun barrel several times as threatens to “Columbine these hos.” That’s an unfortunate use of turning the tragic event into a verb, first off, and as a reference point.

[More after the jump...]

The highly edited version of the song premiered on Funk Master Flex’s Hot 97 (New York) on Thursday night. The unedited version takes it much further, opening with the sound of the barrels and a shot (in the radio edit, we just hear her say “bang bang,” instead of the actual shot.  She tells us many, many times that she has plenty of endorsements and that she is hot and that Mattel is making her own branded Barbie doll (proceeds of which go to charity).

There’s a breakdown by Lil Wayne that is largely bleeped out as it references cocaine, oral sex, and other not-safe-for-broadcast terms.

“Roman Reloaded” won’t get a lot of airplay, that’s for sure, but it’s interesting how  Minaj is unfurling songs from “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded,” which comes out in April. She seems determined, to her credit, to refuse to fit into any one box: “ If “Starships” is too pop for you, here’s something that is hardcore. If you think I’m about to play it safe, I’ll go all crazy at the Grammys.”

What do you think of “Roman Reloaded?”