In case anyone asks, it’s Barbie and it’s Kim Petras.
Well, it seems that Nicki Minaj is fastly becoming a highly sought-after collaborator again after she took a partial break following her marriage – she even promised at the time that she might leave the music industry entirely. Happily, she didn’t, and she’s given us a lot of hits as a result of her not backing up her claims.
Last week, it was a remix with Ice Spice on her runaway track, “Princess Diana,” this week it’s a collab with Kim Petras, and no, we won’t ever get sick of hearing Minaj. “Alone” – a sex-positive single – follows Petras’ beat-heavy bop “brrr” and her massively successful collab with Sam Smith, “Unholy.”
“Alone” is described as a “steamy club banger about letting your impulses take control.” Featuring Minaj, who is one of Petras’ biggest inspirations, the dance track samples Alice Deejay’s Eurodance megahit “Better Off Alone.” It’s said to be a nod to Petras’ love for dance hits, which is something that helped her get over her problems as a child.
“I’ve been tryna give it to you all night / What’s it gonna take to get you all alone? / I just want you here by my side / I don’t wanna be here, baby, on my own,” Petras kicks off the track with a suggestive chorus. “Yeah, don’t you wait, don’t think about it / Yeah, don’t you wait, just come on over now / I’ve been tryna give it to you all night / What’s it gonna take to get you all alone?”
The song sees the singer fantasize about having a good time with a lover and giving her lover a good time as well. After the first verse and the choruses, Minaj comes in with some braggadocios lines, whilst admitting that “yes, we brag” but if you mess with them, well, they’ll get you “dragged.”
Speaking with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe about the release, Petras could not hide her excitement as she talked about collaborating with the hip-hop and rap legend on the single. “It doesn’t feel real still. Her singing ‘It’s Barbie and it’s Kim Petras,’ I cried, I was on the floor and then she calls me Kim Petty in it, which all my friends are like, ‘How do we not come up with that our entire lives?’ So she just changed my life in so many ways with that verse and that verse rips,” she said. “I love her and I’m so inspired by her always, it’s crazy to me. I don’t know how she does it, but she’s just the greatest ever. I’m so happy that she likes the song.”