Toppa Top 10: Caribbean Artists Nicki Minaj Should Collaborate With

Words By Jesse Serwer

Not on the list

After much anticipation, female-rapper-of-the-moment Nicki Minaj dropped her debut LP Pink Friday last week to mixed reviews and brisk sales. We couldn’t help but notice that, with the exception of Rihanna, who we guess gets an asterisk at this point, Nicki didn’t include any Caribbean artists among her guests. But, like her stylistic antecedent Foxy Brown, she’s Trini, has a tight patois game and has been known to drop the occasional dancehall reference (“Tony Matterhorn, dutty wine it!”) into her lyrics. So where’s her “Oh Yeah”? We’ve heard Nicki on a remix of Gyptian’s “Hold Yuh” and alongside Jamericans Sean Kingston and Ricky Blaze, but we have a whole gang of Caribbean artists we’d rather hear her with.

10. Slick Rick

Like a true drama kid, Nicki doesn’t half ass it when she puts on an accent. Her faux British one is particularly charming and amusing; check the outro on “Roman’s Revenge” to see what we mean. She’d get extra points if she could pull it off convincingly alongside the Ruler, a British Jamaican who still retains his brogue after spending 35 of his 45 years on this side of the pond. May we suggest a remake of Smiley Culture’s “Cockney Translation”?

9. TNT (Timberlee, Natalie Storm and Tifa)

This off-again, on-again trio are Nicki’s closest cousins in the dancehall, a mixture of bougie Barbieness and girl-next-door approachability. It’s Timberlee who’s closest in spirit to her Queens counterpart, trying on different accents and voices like the “Valley Girl” in her breakout solo tune “Heels.”

8. Sean Paul

Considering SP’s track record of humid combination tunes with Beyonce, Estelle, etc., a full-on collaboration with Nicki “could be an all-time sex anthem,” in the words of our own Eddie Stats.

7. Supercat

We’d just like to hear Supercat collaborate with anyone at this point: the OG Don Dada has been MIA so long, we can’t be sure we’d even recognize him on the street anymore. He tends to prefer making his comebacks with unlikely, mainstream companions (Kris Kross, Sugar Ray), so Nicki is about as likely as anyone to procure his services.

6. Shelly Thunder

Something about Nicki’s style, over the top, yet befitting an around-the-way NYC girl, reminds us of Shelly Thunder, another young Caribbean artist who buss out of New York’s outer boroughs, more than 20 years ago with a girl-power anthem of her own. We hear Shelly is chatting for the lord these days—perhaps she could be called upon to save “Roman Zolanski,” Minaj’s devilish, Slim Shady-like alter ego.

5. Vybz Kartel

One of Nicki’s most endearing characteristics is how much she embraces her own absurdity. She’s self aware enough to know how ridiculous her moves are but does it all anyway because that’s just her bag. This sounds a lot like another artist we know. As it turns out, Nicki actually sought out Vybz as a collaborator for Pink Friday, via Twitter, so they may even have something in the bag.

4. Tony Matterhorn

Talk about primetime ad space: On Kanye West’s “Monster,” Nicki plugs Mr. Dutty Wine at the peak of what is probably the best verse on the year’s best rap song. There’s a real opportunity for Matterhorn and/or an enterprising producer to craft a remix that could up their respective profiles as well as that of dancehall in general. Let’s get going here, people.

3. Machel Montano

Nicki is probably the biggest artist of Trini descent in the world right now but we’re not sure how much of a splash she’s making in Trinidad itself. What better way to conquer her ancestral homeland than by teaming up with Trinidad’s No. 1 artist?

2. Lady Saw

Apparently, these two have already teamed up, on “Dang A Lang,” a little known album track from Trina’s recent Amazin’. But it’s not necessarily in the studio where they would make the most inspired pairing. Imagine the outfits and wigs we’d bear witness to if this pair made a video, or even did a photo shoot together? Lady Saw’s new album My Way sees the veteran dancehall queen angling more towards pop and hiphop than ever before: it’s not hard to imagine these two finding some middle ground on a single that could work for both, a la No Doubt’s “Underneath It All.”

1. Buju Banton

Buju sure could use a makeover. While he still has the support of core reggae fans and many Jamaicans, to the rest of the world he’s increasingly untouchable. Even if he is ultimately cleared of the federal drug charges he was arrested on last year, he’ll likely find little sympathy from international embassies when it comes time to re-apply for visas. Considering the opposition he was facing from gay groups in both the U.S. and Europe before his bust, he’ll face a myriad of hurdles should he attempt to tour in either place. One way to help repair his image would be to team with Minaj, an artist who early on had us all convinced she was bisexual but now has positioned herself as the first (straight?) major mainstream U.S. rapper to embrace and court a gay fanbase. We’re pretty sure there’s no chance in hell of these two linking in the studio, but should they ever decide to, we already have a hook in mind: “Boom hey hey/Batty boys are OK/Rude bwoy no promote the nasty man/But dem don’t haffi dead.”