Today's Song: Nicki Minaj featuring Rick Ross and Cam'ron 'I Am Your Leader'
The just-released video for Nicki Minaj's Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded highlight is literally brilliant, with a neon color scheme and skewed sense of geometry that recalls Beetlejuice. The self-conscious oddness against this cartoon-goth backdrop is reminiscent of Missy Elliott's "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)." For the raw eye candy alone, this is probably my favorite video of the year — the insane amount of visual wit (courtesy of director Colin Tilley) is a good match for Nicki's tightly packed bars. "I'm a brand, bitch, I'm a brand," Nicki bellows in this latest round of brag-rap. If that is true, it's a wildly inconsistent brand, but her lows (see: virtually every one of her pop/house songs) make the highs that much more eye-popping.