Every aspect of the production is seductive, smooth, sharp: James Brown grunts, drums bounce, and spacey keys wind their way into the hook. She plays the Pippen to Nicki's Jordan, riding out one of Hit-Boy's most hypnotic beats. And then there's sassy Nicki, who boasts about sexual prowess while still flexing on her rivals: 'Bitches ain't got punchlines or flow/ I have both, and an empire, also.'īeyoncé becomes a mediator between Nicki's personality shifts, cooing out a sultry hook that keeps the vibe soft in view of Minaj’s hard lyricism.
First, there's tough Nicki, who delivers masturbation puns and a virtuosic indictment of competitors who aren't even in her tax bracket, all in the same sentence. Like a great opera or short play, 'Feeling Myself' has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé's second collaboration-the highly-anticipated followup to the 'Flawless' remix-is an opus in four acts.
