The rapper Nicki Minaj: Remember her? Lately, Minaj has been making generic pop-diva moves, cutting a swath across red carpets and releasing bland club music (see "Starships"). "Roman Reloaded" is a welcome reversion: This is Minaj in her furiously witty Roman Zolanski alter-ego mode, slinging insults over an appealingly hard, spare Rico Beats track. Lil Wayne drops by to add some filthy rhymes, but the brightest punch lines belong to Minaj: "I guess I went commercial/Just shot a commercial/When I flew to the set, though/I ain't fly commercial."

Listen to "Roman Reloaded":

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“The Pretender”

This song wasn't part of the planned track listing for 2007's Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, and was put together in a day. "It happened after we recorded a lot of stuff," said Dave Grohl. Yet it ended up as the album opener and the lead single. Grohl called it "a stomping Foo Fighters uptempo song with a little bit of Chuck Berry in it." The singer hinted at the lyrics' political overtones: "Everyone's been f---ed over before and I think a lot of people feel f---ed over right now and they're not getting what they were promised."