Nicki Minaj and will.i.am pay tribute to Japanese anime in new video ‘Check It Out’

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Though her hotly anticipated debut album is more than a month away from release, hip-hop’s new girl on the block Nicki Minaj just released the video for her single “Check It Out” featuring will.i.am.

The Japanese anime inspired clip for the whimsical song, which smartly samples the Buggles’ ‘Video Killed the Radio Star,’ is worth a check out (pun very much intended).

Minaj’s more than 1.5 million Twitter followers were anticipating the rapper would release the tracklisting for her debut album, “Pink Friday,” which is set to go head to head with Kanye West on Nov. 22. But she treated them to the video instead.

“So ya didn’t get tracklisting butchya got the ‘check it out’ video. Doesn’t mama always come thru w/smthn? *awkward smile & big eyes,*” she tweeted.

Controversy followed her performance of the song at this year’s Video Music Awards when will.i.am appeared in what looked like ‘black face.’ Whether he’ll catch the same slack for the ‘white face’ he sports in the video (the rapper transforms into a black and white cartoon) is to be determined.

Earlier this summer Minaj sat down with Pop & Hiss to talk about the new album and the hype surrounding her. Although the single adds to a long list of collaborations she’s done this year including tracks with Mariah Carey, Christina Aguleria, Rihanna, Usher, Ludacris and Robin Thicke — she hopes fans don’t get too used to seeing her share the spotlight.

“The collaborations won’t be the most exciting part of my album, so I really don’t like to talk about it too much; there will be collaborations, they’ll always be dope,” she said. “What’s more exciting to me that I think my fans will love is finally being able to play a CD that’s just Nicki Minaj. I think that’s what they want.”

Check out the video here (fair warning, it’s not the clean version, and there’s salty language).

— Gerrick D. Kennedy

twitter.com/GerrickKennedy