Nicki's TV Series Will Be A Musical, Right?!

There must be so many emotions running through the Nicki Minaj fandom in response to the news that Minaj has an ABC Family comedy coming to our TV screens... eventually. The series will be "based on Minaj and her family's immigration from Trinidad and will focus on her 'vibrant family and the personal and musical evolution that led to her eventual rise to stardom,'" according to E Online, which basically means that pure, unadulterated Nicki Minaj awesomeness is going to be in single-camera half-hour for the world to enjoy. Of course, Minaj is best known for her music, which toes the line between rap and pop depending on what mood she's in from track to track, and thus it seems incredibly obvious to me that Minaj's TV series will feature her music. But... will it?

Aside from my firm belief that there is no better song to be the theme song for the show than the chorus of "Feeling Myself" — and only the chorus since it is airing on ABC Family, after all — there is no word yet on how much of Minaj's music, if any, will be featured on the show. I mean, the project doesn't even have a title yet, or any actors involved besides Minaj herself. In fact, as we don't know what Minaj's role in the series will be quite yet, it's likely that her appearance on the show will be as minimal as lending her voice to narrating the episodes.

However, I'm optimistic that music will be an even bigger character on the show than even Minaj herself. After all, the project will focus on her "musical evolution" and "rise to stardom," and, seriously, how can you tell that story without featuring Minaj's actual music? Of course, the kind of music that Minaj rose to fame on might be a little too raunchy for ABC Family's standards, but perhaps that just means that Minaj will write all new, family-friendly music for the purposes of the show. You know, like Empire and the creative ways the show comes up with for navigating around curses in the hip-hop songs on the show. (Trying to imagine "Itty Bitty Piggy" without cursing... Failing...)

At the end of the day, Minaj's music is as much a part of her as her family and the neighborhood that she grew up in. How she went from an unknown aspiring rapper trying to break into a male-dominated field to one of the most celebrated rappers and feminists in the musical game is a story that I'm sure that all of us want to see, but it's also a story that I know that all of us can't get the full scope of without the music itself being there to enhance the experience. Considering she'll be executive producing the series, I would totally be OK if the only new Nicki Minaj album I got in the next year was the soundtrack to this television show. Seriously, I would actually love that.

The show doesn't have to be an outright musical like Empire — although it really, really should be — but we better be getting new music out of this. Please, Minaj and ABC Family, please! I'm already as excited as I can possibly get about this project, but incorporating Minaj's music into the show will just make my excitement that much higher. Now, excuse me while I listen to Beam Me Up Scotty all over again.