Roman's Revenge

David Jeffries of AllMusic called the song the key track of the album, referring to Minaj as a savage as she "roars like a tiger" while standing up to Eminem.[11] Brad Wete of Entertainment Weekly called the song "merciless", as Nicki/Roman tears into the song with lyrics firing at whoever they are meant to be fired at.[12] Alexis Petridis of The Guardian praised the song's eerie and vulgar tone, referring to Minaj's tone of voice as "thrilling, quivering & edge-of-panic."[13] Margaret Wappler of Los Angeles Times complemented Minaj's "huffing and puffing" at Eminem's alter-ego, while both characters exchange violent lyrics.[14] Praising the song as the main track of the album, Scott Plagenhoef of Pitchfork Media complimented the song as aggressive and pointed out Eminem's use of "recycling his Shady-circa-99 persona."[5] Jesse Cataldo of Slant dissected the track while attempting to understand Roman Zolanski as a "less carefully identified sliver of herself than the embodiment of what makes her appealing." Cataldo additionally added that the song gets "violently up in your face."[15]

However, other critics dismissed and negatively reviewed the anti-gay slurs rapped by guest-feature Eminem. Idolator positively reviewed the song as an "experiment," while praising the verses of Minaj while dismissing Eminem's "typical misogyny and homophobia."[9] Marc Hogan of Spin praised the song for noting Minaj's capabilities to "compete with the big boys" in rap. He noted that Eminem and Minaj trade verses over "pulsating Swizz Beatz strings". Although Eminem makes a "killer blow" with an anti-gay slur on gay-friendly Minaj's track", Minaj retaliates with "outlandish British accent."[6] Zach Baron and Rich Juzwiak of The Village Voice both debated on the track, praising it as well as dismissing the anti-gay lyrics by Eminem.[10] Zach Baron praised Minaj for upstaging Eminem by stating that the guest-feature deserved to be shown up by Minaj as she additionally add's more character into the song with additional voice-changes.[10] Rich Juzwiak approached the song as the gay-male-alter-ego Roman Zolanski verses the anti-gay Slim Shady, and praised Minaj/Zolanski for "winning the battle."[10] Juzwiak later questioned Minaj's alter-ego Roman as an "angry gay-male," stating that Roman's character should have gone ahead with knocking Eminem for his past "anti-gay-epithet," and his 'piss-on-women misogyny."[10]

Many critics considered the song a "diss" towards Lil' Kim, who has been in disputes with Minaj since the beginning of her career.[3] Mariel Concepcion of Billboard dissected the song stating "Nicki Minaj's highly-talked about "Roman's Revenge" track hit the net over the weekend, and the Harajuku Barbie appears to be taking jabs at Lil' Kim."[16] In the first verse Minaj takes shots saying "Look at my show footage how these girls be spazzing/So fuck I look like getting back to a has-been/Yeah I said it has-been/hang it up/flatscreen" then again "You out of work/I know it's tough/but enough is enough/" Minaj then specifically takes jabs at Baltimore rapper Keys and Lil'Kim in the second verse rapping, "Is this the thanks that I get for putting you bitches on/ is it my fault that all of you bitches gone/" and following this line this inferred she was talking about Lil' Kim "Nicki she just mad cause you took the spot/ word that bitch mad cause I took the spot/ Well bitch if you aint shitting then get off the pot/Got some niggas out in Brooklyn that'll off ya top/. Minaj also subliminally took jabs at rapper Keys with "I see them dusty ass Filas, Levi's/ Raggedy Ann's/ Holes in your knee highs". Lil' Kim fired back at the song at a club-concert, stating "I will erase this bitch’s social security number. First of all, I don’t even need a record right now and I’d kill that bitch with my old shit. My records ain’t just enter the charts, they made history. What the fuck is this bullshit, this shit come and go!"[17] Minaj later stated in an interview on The Wendy Williams Show that, "They know what I'm talking about. See that's the thing when you put out records; you know only the 'guilty ones' feel like you're talking about them. So you know, if you have nothing to worry about, if you haven't came out saying stuff, if you never came out saying your ungrateful bullshit then you wouldn't worry about it."[18]

In response to "Roman's Revenge", Lil' Kim released "Black Friday" which debuted on DJ Absolut's Hot 97 show on Thanksgiving Day.[19] It was universally panned by music critics.

During the song's release, Rap-Up described Wayne's verse "hungry."[29] Chris Ryan of MTV Buzzworthy gave the song a positive review calling the song thrilling to listen to, and appreciating Wayne's addition stating that his earlier prison sentencing did not affect Wayne's "lyrical acumen or his culinary tastes."[30] Ryan additionally appreciated the collaboration between both label-mates.[30] Jayson Rodriguez of MTV stated that after Wayne's jail-sentencing, he "made up" for his absence by assisting Minaj on a remix of one of her best cuts off Pink Friday.[31]

Reviewing Wayne's lyrical content of the remix, Latifah Muhammad of The Boombox stated that Wayne delves "in between one explicit metaphor after another" as he quickly reclaims his position at the top of the "rap game."[32] Tom Breihan of Pitchfork Media enjoyed Wayne's addition and complimented the remix as "a definite upgrade in every way."[33] Breihan continued to compliment Wayne as a perfect gentleman in comparison to the original with Eminem, and stated that Wayne "sounds unbelievably happy to be on a track again," as every other rapper should feel nervous with Wayne back.[33]