The 15 Best Nicki Minaj Features

Few rappers have the conviction to sell rapping “Chyna” with “Chyna.” Leave it up to Nicki to give us a quadruple helping on her 2017 collaboration with Yo Gotti. She struts all over Mike WiLL Made-It’s minimalist synths, alternating between her demure Barbie persona, double-time rhyming, then shouting out her home borough by rhyming, “rep Queens like Supreme, ask Webb and Nitty, ask Bimmy and Joe.”

It takes a lot for a rap feature not to get drowned out by Beyonce’s aura, especially on a smash like “Single Ladies,” but Nicki made her presence felt with her emphatic delivery and effortless charisma. She followed up on Queen B’s theme by telling a would-be mate, “I will never rent a tux for you.” Sucks to be him. The 2008 appearance was an early primer for Nicki’s career as a feature verse killer.

Nicki’s “Hello Good Morning” verse is an early career gem. She churns through the start of the verse like an 18-wheeler going downhill, delving into her Roman theatrics before rhyming a braggadocious verse where she notes, “I ain’t comin’ out for less than a 100 thou” and closes off with a signature rapid-fire run punctuated by some light patois.

Young Thug was hard-pressed to find someone who could match his extraterrestrial allure on his off-kilter, breakout single. But Nicki was up for the task. She starts her appearance off by promising new music, then gets to work, tracing along Thug’s melody while giving the record her own flavor. The extended verse contains Nicki-isms like “When I come out of my mansion I sprinkle some bread to the pigeons,” and “Tell Justin Timberlake that I am comin for Jessica Biel.”

Besides being tabloid and “Back to Back” fodder for Drake, Nicki Minaj and Meek Mill’s romance was actually a union of two talented East Coast rappers. “All Eyes On You” is a time capsule of a time where “he was the realest, I was the baddest, we was the illest” as Nicki rhymed on the silky Dreams Worth More Than Money single. The song-closing 16 bars shows off her underrated storytelling ability.

On “No Flex Zone,” it’s as if Nicki decided to offset being on a track with a duo by bringing a trio-worth of personality to the proceedings. She delivered a cadence clinic on her remix to the 2015 smash. One doesn’t know which direction she’s going in from couplet to couplet, but the lyrical content is undeniably Nicki with boasts like, “runnin’ this game for five years, guess that’s why my feet hurt.”

Seeing a worldwide star unabashedly show love to their home is always fun. In 2010, Nicki Minaj jumped on the remix to Gyptian’s “Hold Yuh,” shouting out Brooklyn and Queens’ West Indian population (which she’s a part of) and then delving into a verse that shows she could be a reggae artist if she wanted to be. If you learned about Nicki from “Starships,” you might be outside the bubble on this fun. Already, her star power was apparent as her verse arguably kept the song in rotation for another several years.

Nicki and 2 Chainz were one of the 2010s dynamic duos. “I Luv Dem Strippers” is an early collaboration where Nicki buoyed 2 Chainz’ debut album with a fiery verse where she reps Young Money, Rich Gang, and lets Tyga know she’s after his then-boo Blac Chyna. There probably would’ve been an internal YMCMB war if she was a male MC calling out her partner’s girl, but Nicki’s always done what she wants — we just work around it.

Nicki was in peak feature killer mode in 2016. She hopped on Yo Gotti’s already-buzzing “Down In The DM” single and gave it more life with an extended, characteristically raunchy appearance. Any verse that starts off by noting “your dick ain’t good enough to be stylin’ on me” is coming in strong, and Nicki keeps it going by bashing the “fuckboys” in her DMs while hilariously pining for a man who can “give me more head than Peggy Bundy.”

“Up All Night” is a glimpse of Drake and Nicki as burgeoning superstars, with few of the accolades they’d come to accrue but all the talent and charisma that indicated they were coming. Even at the start of her journey, Nicki rhymed with the conviction of someone who knew you were lucky to have her on your song. Here, she sidestepped the crooning and vocal theatrics (for the most part) on one of her most straightforward moments ever, boasting about how she “made a million off a mixtape.”

It’s hard to one-up Drake on a collaboration, but Nicki may have done just that with “Make Me Proud.” She matches his double-time flow with her own animated, fast-paced cadence — as she lets people know “done did the pop tours, I’m the realest deal.” She follows up her speed demon routine by harmonizing, then finishes off the verse by rapping at a more deliberate pace and letting her charm carry it home. Any one of those approaches would’ve been a fine verse. All three at once make for a classic.

Expecting anything less than heat from Nicki on a song called “Ass” would be like expecting Jay-Z to half-ass on a song called ‘Brooklyn Billionaire.” All the flirty props Big Sean gave out on his original record could pretty much be directed at her, so it’s only right that she joined in on the fun, lyrically accosting him for his residuals at the end of her verse. But that wasn’t even the most entertaining part: she was self-deprecating about her own posterior, joking that “it’s finally soft” and “I guess them ass shots wore off,” then holding a note for an entire bar —  after rhyming “dashiki” with “Waikiki.” A bold move sometimes requires a little skill to merit it, and Nicki Minaj showed that here. 

“Flawless” was exhibit A of people realizing Beyonce could be a damn good rapper if she wanted to be. She didn’t need a costar or a “Flawless” remix. But anyone who did jump on the track would have their hands full matching her stardom. Nicki took on the challenge and succeeded in one of her finest moments. 

It’s the rappers’ ethos to back themselves against the wall then come back swinging. When one opens up a verse with “like MJ doctor, they killin’ me…propofol” just three years after the King Of Pop’s death like Nicki did, it takes a lot to bounce back. But Nicki did that and then some, matching Queen B’s aura with characteristic bars like “slap these hoes on they ass, like we birthing bitches,” then commandeering a beat switch and jumping into gear three with a fast-paced flow that made it known that Nicki isn’t just one of the best women rappers of her era, but one of the best period.

Even though “Bottoms Up” is a Trey Songz single, it feels sonically devoted to the late aughts, early-2010s stranglehold Young Money had on the radio. Kane Beatz’ synths and smooth 808s would fit seamlessly into a YMCMB playlist — perhaps that’s why Nicki Minaj felt so at home on the 2010 Passion, Pain & Pleasure single. 

Nicki might be the best rapper ever at shouting out their counterpart during a feature. She starts her verse off cheekily, begging Trey for some Rose’, then delves into a feverish verse with bars like “I don’t say, ‘Hi,’ I say, ‘Keys to the Benz,’ and shouting out Anna Nicole smith with, “Do you like my body? Anna Nicki.” Young Money, more than almost any other rap few, is a top-down reflection of its leader. When you think of Lil Wayne, you think of someone who could turn your song into an event. Ditto Drake and Nicki. “Bottoms Up” is a flashback to an era when artists called Nicki not to simply feature on a song, but to make the song. 

As much as the rap game likes its sports metaphors, we don’t have a playoff season. We don’t have an official breeding ground for stars to be born. In music, it just happens, then nothing is the same. For Nicki, “it” happened on “Monster,” where the then-up-and-comer outshone three first-ballot rap hall of famers and, in many eyes, officially started her journey toward the pantheon. 

The true sign of an iconic verse is how much you’re anticipating it during the preceding hook. When stadium goers, bar dwellers, and karaoke patrons feel themselves ready to unleash and go on an every-single-word tirade. Nicki’s “Monster” extended verse fits the bill, accentuating everything that makes her great: the theatrical character shifts, the braggadocio of “50K for a feature, no album out” the bombast of telling Kanye “I think me, you and Amb’ should ménage Friday,” and the technical lyricism apparent throughout. Nicki Minaj’s “Monster” moment isn’t just the best verse of her career, it’s the verse of the 2010s.