Musical Montage: Nicki Minaj “Your Love”
Coming off her debut album, Pink Friday, “Your Love” was one of the first hits for Nicki Minaj, although it was a pretty drastic change from most of the songs she’s put out since. A “rap ballad”, “Your Love” samples the Annie Lennox “No More I Love You’s” and features Nicki both singing and rapping about an awesome guy, who is represented in the music video by arguably one of the most awesome guys ever, Michael Jai White. The entire music video is an homage to Japan/martial arts, as Nicki is one of several students learning the ways of the samurai from Jai White’s master. Nicki gets into a romantic rivalry with anothe student and the video culminates in the rivals battling each other in a sword duel (with a surprising twist on who actually wins). There’s some legitamately cool and artistic use of ribbon and fabric in the video, with different colors being used for water or blood and Nicki goes through a wide assortment of Asian inspired costumes. The song hit #1 on the Billboard “Hot Rap Songs” chart and peaked at #14 on the Hot 100 when it released in 2010. Check out the music video below.
