By Melissa Novacaska

Names: Lindsey Stirling and Megan Nicole

Song: “Starships” by Nicki Minaj

Why we’re obsessed: We’re loving Lindsey and Megan’s take on Nicki Minaj’s “Starships” with its Celtic twist and aerial views. We’ve been amazed by Stirling’s badass violin skills in the past, when she took on a dubstep track (yes, dubstep on the violin. What?).

This clean-cut version sounds just like the original for the most part, but Lindsey’s killer violin skills really amp up the beat. Although I like how both Megan and Nicki’s voices sound similar, we’re missing the popstar’s spazzed out alter ego, Roman (you all know what I’m talking about). Check out the video below and you’ll see why it has gotten over 300,000 views in less than a week!

Background: Both girls are from the United Sates and have their own YouTube channels. Megan uploads Top 40 covers and some original tracks, and Lindsey uploads various violin pieces.

Watch it here:

All the images of Nicki Minaj flipping back her green sea monster hair and the Twitpics of those buff Hawaiian men in pink bowler hats and sarongs are totally making sense now. It’s finally confirmed in her new “Starships” video that Minaj is indeed an alien from another planet that teleports from her schmancy flying starship. A party-ready Minaj beams down from the spaceship showing plenty of skin.

Minaj starts the day dancing in a pink bathing on the beach before changing into a different (and slightly more PG) suit and rapping in front of a trippy kaleidoscopic backdrop. There’s a look for everyone in Minaj’s video and the third one is definitely my favourite, if only because it reinforces the fact that a dark part of me is tempted to die my hair purple. Actually.

In the final scene, a nearly white-haired Minaj dances fireside at the beach with her worshipers. The Anthony Mandler-directed clip is exactly what we thought it would be, a good old fist-pumping time and a summer catalog for bikini fashions.

Watch it here:

Nicki Minaj dropped two very different tracks this week, both from her forthcoming album “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded.”

“Beez in the Trap” is comparatively more simple than Starships, with minimal and raw production. Although the beat is simple, she raps with that pop she’s known for with Atlanta rapper 2 Chainz.

Minaj posted the dirty version of the song herself on Twitter along with some of the dirty lyrics of the song:  ”B***hes aint sh*t & they aint sayin nuffin! A hunnit muthaf***as can’t tell me nuffin! I beez in the trap! B beez in the trap!!!!”

Minaj’s track with Chris Brown “Right By My Side” also found its way online and it’s a bit more PG, featuring her softer singing voice.

The album drops on April 3 and if these tracks are any indication of the rest of the album, we are excited!

Beez in the Trap:

Right By My Side:

While most people are spending their day hunched over in a classroom or cubicle, lucky Nicki Minaj gets to roll around on the beach in Hawaii to shoot her new video for Starships. This dedicated girl will probably have sand in a lot of uncomfortable places. The things we do in the name of music videos…

For some reason I always pictured the setting of this song as some extraterrestrial universe with flying “starships” but I guess the beach is fitting considering the first line: ”Let’s go to the beach, each / Let’s go get a wave / They say, what they gonna say? / Have a drink, clink, found the bud light.”

I guess I have to mention the green mermaid hair that so suitably matches her pink suit, but really, she has a new hair colour every time I see her it’s not a surprise.

Check out more photos below:

Nicki Minaj’s new song “Roman Reloaded” starts appropriately enough with a gun being loaded. The song is the title track from her upcoming album Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, and features Lil’ Wayne.

The track is heavier on rap than her last song Starships but I don’t find it as catchy. It’s a return to the spitfire verses she started with and really showcases how fast she can spew out her rhymes.

I’m doubly impressed that the song seems to be pretty timely. It even mentions her recent Grammy performance in which she was the star of an exorcism.

Would you rather here more songs like Roman Reloaded or Starships on her new album?