It’s been nearly four years since Nicki Minaj released her last studio album, The Pinkprint, and a long road to Queen. Throughout this year and last, Minaj has teased the release of her fourth album consistently, through small controversies and stalled singles. After pushing back the street date three times this summer, she announced on Thursday, during her inaugural Beats 1 radio show, that she had planned to play Queen in full during the episode but was barred due to “corporate drama.” Instead the album would come out in just 12 hours’ time—a week earlier than promised. It was a fitting ending to an unpredictable rollout.

Now that Queen has arrived, here’s what you need to know going in.

Key Tracks

While Queen features a considerable amount of filler, there are highlights tucked among these 19 tracks:

“Barbie Dreams”

A Biggie throwback revived through shockingly cold disses, served with an effortless flow

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“Chun Swae” feat. Swae Lee

The best versions of Nicki Minaj and Rae Sremmurd’s Swae Lee, over an ominous Metro Boomin beat

“Good Form”

A sex-positive twerk anthem, assisted by booming production from Mike WiLL Made-It

“Come See About Me”

Essentially a 98 Degrees song updated for the heartbroken teenage girls of this generation

“Coco Chanel” feat. Foxy Brown

Your thrilling reward for reaching the end of the album: threatening bars from old friends

Name Drops and “Disses” Galore

Nicki loves a good shoutout, and for a variety of reasons: to honor, to fire shots, to make a comparison, to flex knowledge, or to add a splash of imagery. On Queen, she name-drops fashion icons (Jean Paul Gaultier, her new friend Karl Lagerfeld), sports figures (Steph Curry, Jeff Gordon), and models (“ANTM” contestant Winnie Harlow, Farrah Fawcett). Oh yeah, and nearly two dozen of her rap peers.

On “Barbie Dreams,” she follows the classic template set by the Notorious B.I.G. in “Just Playing (Dreams),” the funky Ready to Die staple where he runs down all the R&B singers he wants to fuck. Lil Kim remade “Dreams” on her seminal debut Hard Core, and Nicki included her aspirational take on 2007’s Playtime Is Over mixtape. This time around, she details the individual reasons why she ultimately ducked these dudes, taunting the rappers she’s dated, flirted with publicly, collaborated with, or mentored. (She said of her targets on her Beats 1 show: “You guys know that's not a diss, right? I love them. I said things about people who can take a joke and not be emotional about it.”) Most of Nicki’s barbs are deliciously mean and funny (“Drake worth a hundred milli, always buying me shit/But I don't know if the pussy wet or if he crying and shit”), but a few are perhaps beyond the pale (“Shoutout Desiigner, ‘cause he made it out of special ed”).

The album opens and closes with a more reverent approach to name-checking. On the reggae-tinged opener “Ganja Burns,” Minaj defends the legacy of rap’s last generation from its incoming class: “You made one dope beat, now you Kanye?/You got a n---a named JAY, now you ‘Yoncé?/You got about three stacks, now you André?/...You gotta have real skill, gotta work for that.” She closes the album with “Inspirations Outro,” a laundry list of influential Caribbean artists. The proud Trinidad native name-checks soca stars from her home country (Machel Montano, Destra Garcia), the so-called king and queen of Jamaican dancehall (Beenie Man and Lady Saw, respectively), and of course, Bob Marley and Lauryn Hill.

On-Brand Guest List

Adding to Queen’s “Caribbean tings” influences, the album’s standout feature comes from Foxy Brown. A fellow New York MC with roots in Trinidad, Brown brings her fiery energy to the dark dancehall track “Coco Chanel.” The two are established allies, as are most of the featured artists on Queen. Eminem shows up for an overly generous and verbose verse early on (“Majesty”), mirroring his cameo on Pink Friday. Lil Wayne and Ariana Grande, two of Nicki’s most faithful sidekicks at this point, do their respective things, while past collaborators Swae Lee and Future contribute verses.

The Weeknd is perhaps a minor surprise; Nicki hopped on a remix of “The Hills” and they’ve performed live together, but their glossy (if slightly snoozy) break-up track “Thought I Knew You” marks their first real collaboration. The most unexpected name in the credits is Labrinth, the British singer-songwriter-producer who croons the memorable hook on “Majesty.” The list of contributors is rounded out by top-tier hip-hop producers like Metro Boomin, Mike WiLL Made-It, Zaytoven, Murda Beatz, and Frank Dukes, who lay down beats that sound expensive and somewhat more consistent than past Minaj albums.

Notably absent from Queen is “FEFE,” currently the No. 3 song in the country and a notable feature for 6ix9ine. The Brooklyn rapper pleaded guilty to the use of a child in a sexual performance in 2015 and is now facing prison time and a sex-offender registration, yet is still slated to join Minaj and Future on their upcoming world tour.

Trust Issues

The record’s themes include “it being okay to keep your legs closed,” as Minaj memorably phrased it in her recent Elle cover story. While Queen features the rapper’s typical flashes of braggadocio, Nicki also reveals more vulnerability about love than she did on The Pinkprint. She brings hurt bars to the cutting breakup banger “Nip Tuck,” croons in Auto-Tune about disappointment alongside the ultimate Emotional Baggage Hook Boy (the Weeknd) on “I Thought I Knew You,” and comes around to the idea of rekindling love on the icy R&B tune “Run & Hide.” The final piece of her emotional arc falls into place on the glittering R&B-pop ballad “Come See About Me.” A tender Nicki offers a second chance without any pretense or ego, singing, “You know I’m still trying to find where we went wrong at/So come, come see about me.”

Nicki-isms

“I tried to fuck 50 for a powerful hour/But all that n---a wanna do is talk Power for hours” —“Barbie Dreams”

“I'm New York Nick, I'm ballin’ with Carmelo/I'm wavy, word to Shawty L-O, hello/How your jacket say Porsche and you never rode a Porsche?/How you supposed to make the quarter when you never went North?” —“LLC”

“See a bitch got more coins than a game room/So we ain't ever hatin’ in TheShadeRoom/See I keep my sons in a playroom/So me and you ain't ever in the same room” —“Good Form”

“If you know your pussy worth a Benz truck/Don’t let a homie fuck unless his bands up” —“Rich Sex”

“You broke my heart and it never fixed/I just want them dead presidents” —“Thought I Knew You”