"Barbie Dreams" is a song recorded by rapper Nicki Minaj for her fourth studio album Queen (2018). It was released on August 14, 2018, to radio stations through Young Money Entertainment and Cash Money Records as the third single from the album. The song was written by Minaj, Rashad "Ringo" Smith, Alexander Roland, the duo Mel and Mus composed of Melvin Hough II and Rivelino Raoul Wouter, Christopher Smith, James Brown, and Fred Wesley; while its production was done by Ringo, and Mel and Mus.
"Barbie Dreams" received widespread critical acclaim. It also received public recognition from many of the male rappers "roasted" in the song. Commercially, the song peaked at number 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 and entered the charts in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. For promotion, Minaj debuted the track on her Queen Radio show on Beats 1, and performed the song live at the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards.
Background and release
In a June 2018 Elle magazine interview, Minaj lamented the death of rap beef, something she loved and felt had dissipated, so she wanted to bring that energy back in a fun spirit. On August 10, 2018, Minaj revealed the final tracklist for her fourth studio album, Queen, that included a track titled "Barbie Dreams" at number three. It premiered a few hours later as part of the album on all major music platforms. To promote it as well as the 18 other tracks, Minaj played the song live on her Beats 1 Queen Radio show with Zane Lowe, and explained the message behind it. Four days later, as announced by Young Money, the song was sent to Rhythmic contemporary radio stations as the third single from the album, following "Bed", which features American singer Ariana Grande. The song's title “Barbie Dreams” also connects to Nicki Minaj's Barbie persona. She often dresses to portray a Barbie-like image, using Barbie as one of her alter egos.
Composition and lyrics
"Barbie Dreams" is a hip hop song that is four minutes and thirty-nine seconds long. It contains interpolations from "Just Playing (Dreams)", written by Christopher Wallace and Smith, as performed by The Notorious B.I.G.; interpolations and samples from "Blues and Pants", written by Brown and Wesley, as performed by Brown. The song marks the second time Minaj rapped on B.I.G.'s "Just Playing (Dreams)" beat, as she previously used it on her track "Dreams" from her debut mixtape, Playtime Is Over (2007).
Lyrically, unlike the former who rapped about his attraction to popular female R&B singers, Minaj playfully insults prominent male rappers and athletes, who are mostly friends and collaborators of hers, with a few of them even featured on the album. The list includes Lil Wayne, Drake, Meek Mill, Dave East, Eminem, DJ Khaled, 50 Cent, Young Thug, Swae Lee, Lil Uzi Vert, Fetty Wap, Quavo, Bow Wow, Future, 6ix9ine, Special Ed, Desiigner, Kanye West, and YG. Several publications suggested that the song was a diss track, but Minaj has denied that and clarified during her Queen Radio show that the track only targeted individuals she loves. She also tweeted a similar statement, "I only mentioned people [...] that I fuk wit. This isn't a diss. Yikes. This is culture, this is BIGGIE!!!!! New York!!!! This is FUN." Furthermore, she uses the idea of Barbie, the iconic western doll to contradict normalized ideas of beauty being blond and thin. Instead, Nicki Minaj uses her Barbie persona to show she is just as beautiful without those traits. She shows the power of her body that she shows so much pride in Minaj's recording engineer Big Juice explained the making process of the song saying, "She told me to load up that beat, put it on loop, and give her about twenty or thirty minutes. Then she goes in the booth and lays that shit down, and that’s what you got. I didn’t know what she was gonna say. I wanna say she did 90% of that in one take. She mumbled the hook when she was laying the verses, laid the rest of it, went back and put the hook in the middle."
Talking about her influences to make the song on her Queen Radio show, Minaj mentioned B.I.G. and Eminem saying, "Shout outs to B.I.G. [who] is still inspiring me every day. [...] I love dope writers who can write bars and make you laugh. Eminem [after that] too." She also cited 50 Cent's "How to Rob" as an inspiration on her Hot 97 interview, "It's so "How to Rob" [...] I wanna shoutout 50 because [...] he inspired that record so much. That's why it's the first person I say on the song."