Nicki Minaj put her own spin on Rae Sremmurd and Gucci Mane’s “Black Beatles” after the track hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on Monday.
Named after her fanbase, “Black Barbies” houses shoutouts to Donald Trump (“Island girl, Donald Trump want me go home”), El Chapo, Norah Jones, PETA, and Rae Sremmurd’s debut single “No Flex Zone,” which Minaj also remixed in 2014.
“Why? Cuz 2 Lil black kids got the NUMBER 1 RECORD IN THE COUNTRY & I’m soooooo happy for Mike Will,” Minaj wrote when announcing the track on Instagram, shouting out its producer Mike Will Made It. “Now [check] that! *my baby Phaedra voice* #SremmLife #MikeWillMadeIt Guwop on the nmbr one record in the country.”
“Black Beatles” got a major boost when it became the soundtrack to viral sensation the Mannequin Challenge. Participants post videos of themselves posing in frozen positions while “Black Beatles” plays in the background. When asked why they thought the song tapped into such viral success, Rae Sremmurd’s Swae Lee told EW, “It has a good mood to it, and the world is just appreciating that song. When it comes on, it makes you feel a certain vibe. You really pay attention to what’s going on. You see everything that’s going on… it feels like you’re frozen, that something big is about to happen. When the beat drops, it’s perfect.”
Leave a Reply