After building up a steady buzz on the strength of a string of successful cameos and signing with Lil Wayne’s Young Money imprint, Nicki Minaj was poised for a successful solo run with her first single. What she ended up with was a single that never made it to the charts and a video that resulted in a lawsuit. Aside from a lack of commercial success, “Massive Attack” wasn’t exactly embraced by music critics.
“‘Massive Attack’ stiffed so badly it’s most likely been discarded, noisy and disjointed and, especially when paired with the luxuriously tacky video, unpleasantly reminiscent of Grace Jones’s terrifying perfume ads in Boomerang,” wrote Rob Harvilla of the Village Voice.
In addition to critical comparisons to Strangé, Hollywood Exotic Car Rental sought $11,000 in damages after claiming Hip Hop’s Barbie took the rented Lamborghini featured in the video off-road and put a pink-colored exterior wrap on it. So what went wrong?
“I was only able to do as much as I was allowed to do,” Sean Garrett told Billboard magazine in a recent interview. “Sometimes you have to step back and get off the wheel. I didn’t have control of the entire creative process. A lot of [other] artists trust me enough and allow me to do what I know is best to do as a producer.”
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Both parties remain on good terms and have since rebounded with returns to the charts. Nicki Minaj’s second single, “Your Love” spent eight weeks on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, peaking at number 14. Meanwhile, Garrett has recently signed a joint deal between Colombia and Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.
