Nicki Minaj - Pound The Alarm

August 13, 2012 Critic Jonni 0 Comments

Today I was not sure at all what music video to review next, so to look for inspiration I decided to flip through the music channels. After hearing Amelia Lily's "You Bring Me Joy" about 3 times, this song appeared on three of the channels at the same time. And for the next hour this music video popped up over and over again, I presume Nicki Minaj was trying to tell me to review her, so here I am.

Nicki Minaj, real name Onika Maraj, was born in Saint James, a "suburb" of Port of Spain which is the capital of Trinidad and Tobago. When she was five she moved to New York and that was where she was brought up. For this video, she has gone back to her roots and it is filmed in Trinidad & Tobago with loads of references to her home country.

"Pound The Alarm" was written by Onika Maraj, Nadir Khayat (RedOne), Carl Falk, Rami Yacoub, Bilal Hajji and Achraf Jannusi. Quite a team don't you think? However it's got "Starships" written all over it, I can hear the musical difference, it's there but it's not quite so clear, therefore I could imagine this song to be the same with just the lyrics being different. I also find "Starships" much more catchy whereas this song isn't so sing-a-long-able, if that makes sense.

At first I was not impressed at all, to be honest I was quite disgusted, I thought once again she has created another rubbish music video one that may be slightly better than "Stupid Hoe" but still really bad. However now I've looked into it and found out the meanings and the reasons as to why she's dressed like that and the reasons why she does the things that she does, I find it more of an inspirational music video because she's gone back to her roots and where she began, literally. It doesn't make it the best music video, clearly but it has made me see it in a different light.

The video was set in Trinidad & Tobago as I have previously said, Nicki Minaj is parading around in quite a revealing costume, which is more of a traditional costume that is to be worn at the Trinidad & Tobago Carnival. It made me laugh the way everything moved as she walked. There is a lot of Trinidad & Tobago flags and the fact that Nicki Minaj has focused on her home town and their traditions makes me inspired by her, and I hope many people feel the same.

There are a few known people appearing here and there, these people are: Machel Montano (a soca singer), Bunji Garlin (a reggae/soca singer) and Fay-Ann Lyons (a soca singer). Nicki Minaj also starts a conga line, dances sensually and also does a lot of choreography, this is traditional of Trinidad & Tobago Carnivals, and it's nice that they have kept with the free spirit of the traditions.

Overall a song that sounds very much like a previous single, and an accompanying music video that looks not so good at first, but when you find out more about it, you realise that it is not so bad, on the other hand, the song and the music video has next to nothing in common. So weighing up everything I've decided to give it this rating, I hope I come across much better music videos from Nicki Minaj in the future.