The Best Nicki Minaj Features Of All Time
Illustration by Bianca Bosso.
As well as being an incredible artist in her own right, Nicki Minaj has earned a reputation as one of the best, if not the best, feature's artists this side of the millennium, making every track she stops on something more special than what it would've been. We've stacked them all up against each other and here are our favourite Nicki features, ranked.
23. Justin Bieber - Beauty & A Beat
"But I gotta keep an eye out for Selena"
Jumping on a track with a teenage ratbag is not an easy task but Minaj stepped up to the plate and wasted not one line in this slick verse. She name-checks Bibes' then girlfriend Selena Gomez, rhymes beast with priest and, let's be honest, totally over shadows JB on his own song.
22. Yo Gotti - Down In The DM (Remix)
"Cause 99.9%, of these fuckboys can't fuck me."
Yo Gotti let Nicki Minaj step onto his biggest hit and started her voice with, "Your dick ain't good enough to be stylin' on me." She basically retorts everything Gotti says and talks dirty while planting a firm hand in the face of anyone who would ever step into her DMs. She also samples her own drawn out note from Big Sean's Dance (A$$) which is so meta.
21. Major Lazer - Run Up (Feat. PARTYNEXTDOOR)
"I don't put sugar in my spaghetti sauce."
Nicki proved on Pinkprint tracks like Trini Dem Girls that she's a formidable dancehall rapper and she hit a home run this year with her Run Up verse. Nicki and PARTYNEXTDOOR are perfect partners on this perky Major Lazer cut that sees Nicki basically fit an entire song into her minute-long verse. The way she effortlessly moves from rapping to singing to a tempo change is nothing short of genius.
20. Lil Uzi Vert - The Way Life Goes
"Anyway, I'm stopping bags like the TSA."
Minaj and Uzi seamed to strike up a genuine connection working on this song and it shows even though it's simply a remix. Minaj's verse comes in at the front of the song and she brings a certain strength to an otherwise tender song. Her "I'm stopping bags like the TSA" line is also one of her best.
19. Drake - Make Me Proud
"Double-D up, hoes: Dolly Parton."
Drake and Nicki are two of the best when it comes to crossing between pop and hip-hop songs and Make Me Proud is the perfect cross-section. Nicki takes the second verse and manages to puff her chest while still being sweet as she switches between rapping and singing. The bridge on this is some of her finest melodic work to date.
18. Megan Thee Stallion - Hot Girl Summer
"When we say it's Hot Girl Summer we ain't talkin' 'bout degrees."
Megan got Minaj on a song using her trademark slogan so you know there's respect there. The verse apparently came through at the last minute after they appeared on an Instagram Live together but it sounds like it was always meant to be. It sounds like the sort of beat Minaj was made to rap on: hip-hop-oriented with a slight pop tinge.
17. Ludacris - My Chick Bad
"It's Nightmare on Elm Street and guess who's playin' Freddy."
2010 and Nicki was gearing up to release her debut album The Pinkprint, still firing off the hype of her unbelievable verse on Monster. My Chick Bad sees her bring the right kind of crazy finishing each of her bars with a sense of immediacy as she growls in your face. Friday 13th and Nightmare on Elm St are her visual references as she turns an otherwise lacklustre Luda song into a thrilling nightmare.
16. Ariana Grande - Side To Side
"If you wanna Minaj, I got a tricycle."
Ariana Grande and Nicki are an unexpectedly brilliant duo. They brought it together on Nicki's Get On Your Knees and reprised it on Ariana's album for a song that's essentially about not being able to walk after wild sex. The song moves at a reggae pace but when Nicki takes the baton from Ariana she speeds it up and demonstrates how on-beat she can be when it comes to immediate pop songs. "I'm the queen of rap, young Ariana run pop," may be the most truthful statement she's ever made.
15. DaBaby - iPhone
"Call me Aretha, I want my respect."
Nicki is never one to pass up an opportunity to be on the next big rapper's record. iPhone is one of the highlights of DaBaby's Kirk raised by Minaj's cheeky and melodic verse. We always love a rap/sung moment from Minaj and she absolutely nails it here
14. Nicki Minaj - Poke It Out
"Wife beater torn like Natalie Imbruglia."
We love a nonsensical Minaj moment and she takes this Playboi beat as an opportunity to give us some trademark sounds. She then follows it up flicking effortlessly between a mumble rap style and her own hard-hitting bars. It shows her versatility when it comes to the rap game, keeping up with some of the freshest new rappers around.
13. Young Money - Bedrock
"I'd just be coming off the top, asbestos."
Nicki may have never found success if she let her mentors outshine her. She was coming up amongst men and giants and yet she belittled them everytime she stepped on a track. This is one of the earliest examples as she makes her verse sandwiched in between Lloyd and Drake count. "I'm so pretty," she sings but she also growls with a smile on her face like she's the type to ruin your life while grinning.
12. Chance The Rapper - Zanies & Fools
"I made your top 2 and I ain't number 2/I conquered rap and then pop too"
Nicki Minaj was one of the highlights of Chance's entire The Big Day record. Her verse on Zanies & Fools is a refreshingly autobiographical one that brings an unfiltered honesty that Minaj rarely delivers.
11. Kanye West - Dark Fantasy
"Gather round children, Zip it listen!"
This may not be a Nicki verse as much as it is a monologue but it's a stroke of genius. Nicki's British alter-ego Martha opens up Kanye's masterpiece A Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and effortlessly ushers in the grandeur that is the opening track Dark Fantasy. The growl at the tail-end of the monologue is just a taster of what was to come when she appeared again on the album for Monster.
10. Drake - Up All Night
"Which bitch, you know made a million off a mixtape?"
Drake and Nicki were both on the verge of being huge and they teamed up for this track of Drizzy's debut Thank Me Later. Drake's verse is solid but Nicki's is where all the personality is at. It's full of drama from her sharp tongue, to her laugh, to her accents. It perfectly wrapped up everything that was so appealing about Nicki at the start of her mainstream career.
9. 2 Chainz - Realize
"Did Nas clear that "Ether" record? Nah, but I broke Aretha record."
Nicki's comeback to the whole Remy Ma thing was a little disappointing to say the least but her feature on 2 Chainz Realize makes up for it. She basically snatches it from 2 Chainz and makes it her own. She denounces Ma's right to use the Shether name because Nas didn't give permission and that line just happens to rhyme with, "I broke Aretha record," referring to how many Hot 100 entries she's had. Nicki has her criticisers but it's hard to argue when she raps, "I've been winning 8 years consistently, at least respect it."
8. Yo Gotti - Rake It Up
"Nickname is Nicki but my name ain't Nicole."
From the first verse of this song it was clear that this was a classic Minaj feature. She rhymes Chyna with China and then switches up the flow at least four times while talking absolute trash. Sometimes all we want to hear is Minaj talk nonsense and she does it in the most braggadocious way here.
7. B.O.B. - Out Of My Mind
"Couple hit songs, got you thinking you a hearthrob."
Nicki has a habit of jumping on songs that are mediocre and making them memorable with an incredible verse and this is a grade A example of that. B.O.B.'s never been a top tier rapper and while his performance here is pretty captivating, the notions of craziness are tailor-made for Nicki. She steps in and tears the songs to shred, sampling B.O.B.'s own song Airplanes and generally spitting hot fire. She's a laugh away from a tear the whole time and it's a phenomenal performance.
6. A$AP Ferg - Plain Jane (Remix)
"I don't keep up with the Joneses but I do know Catherine Zeta."
Ferg's biggest song yet got a boost from Minaj mid-run, helping it fly even further up the charts. 2017 was a landmark year for Minaj features. She was on fine form and it doesn't get better than this one full of clever namechecks and quips. This one got everyone excited for Queen regardless of whether you think she delivered or not.
5. Trey Songz - Bottom's Up
"Could I get that salt all around that rim rim rim rim?"
Trey Songz's Bottom's Up is a club song not made to be particularly memorable but when you've got a pre-debut Nicki on board, you better believe it's going to be something special. For the first few bars, she's basically ordering a drink and yet she sounds like she's moments away from a meltdown. Then she composes herself to tell everyone, "I'm really such a lady," before giving up the act to go back to growling. Those verses right before her debut album dropped are so thrilling and exciting.
4. Ciara - I'm Out
"If he got a new bitch, then tell that bitch meet you outside."
Nicki goes hard when she's kicking it with the boys but there's nothing quite like the bond she forms with her female collaborations. This is almost her best one, with her and Ciara chanelling '00s R&B for a space-themed song and video that relies on the pure talent of the pair. Their moves when Nicki hits double-time are iconic and the strength she conjures with every word on this is flawless. The chemistry between Nicki and Ciara is undeniable.
3. Beyoncé - Flawless (Remix)
"This every hood nigga dream, fantasizing about Nicki and B."
It was always going to be an event when Bey met Nicki and the pair just went so big on the remix of Flawless off Bey's self-titled record. You get the feeling they both knew the skill they were going up against and they both bring their best to the table with Bey throwing down bars before Nicki arrives after an Outkast sample in a puff of smoke. She eases us in slowly but then she goes hard, rapping about, "fantasizing about Nicki and B." It's a feminist anthem and one that truly felt like Nicki had decided she didn't need alter-egos or accents to show just how powerful she was. She was standing next to Bey and together they were an Army-sized force.
2. Big Sean - Dance (A$$)
"Only time you on the net is when you Google my ass."
It's hard to imagine Big Sean doing a song like this that almost crosses over into novelty territory now but back in 2011 he did it and he recruited the queen of mixing novelty with fierceness. Nicki delivers one of her dirtiest and flirtiest verses ever here and she cuts Big Sean down to size on his own song rapping, "B-B-Big Sean, b-boy, how big is you?" There are plenty of unforgettable moments here but none as good as that extended note off the back of, "Waikiki" that feels like she freezes time just to extend her time in the spotlight. It's one of those simultaneously ridiculous and iconic moments that only Nicki is capable of owning.
1. Kanye West - Monster (Feat. Jay-Z, Rick Ross & Bon Iver)
"50K for a verse, no album out."
This is not only Nicki's best feature but it's also one of the best rap features this side of the millennium. Without an album to her name, Nicki stepped up to the plate alongside Kanye, Jay-Z and Rick Ross, basically telling them to stand down. It's not that what they served up wasn't good enough, it's that what Nicki served up was so memorable that they never could have seen it coming. She comes in fierce, gripping the haunting, raw beat and wrestling it until she's the victor which she is around the time the beat dips and she screams, "I'm a mother fuckin' monster." It couldn't have come at a better time for her, right before the release of her debut album. It's like she waited until she was in the ring with the world's best rappers to prove that at that point she wasn't just the best female rapper, she was one of the best rappers. Period. It's no coincidence that she hasn't been on a Kanye, Jay or Ross record since this was released. Just sayin'.
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