Nicki Minaj, ‘Fly’ Feat. Rihanna – Song Review

Rapper Nicki Minaj teams up with fellow pop princess Rihanna for the anthemic 'Fly,' which is slated to be the next single from her platinum-selling album 'Pink Friday. It's an inspiring song about brushing off the naysayers who want to thwart your life goals.

On the song, Nicki acknowledges the haters but vows that she won't falter no matter how much they try to stop her shine. She raps:

"They got they gun out aiming at me / But I become Neo when they are aiming at me / Me, Me / Me against them / Me against enemies / Me against friends / Somehow they both seem to become one / A sea full of sharks and they all smell blood / They start comin' and I start risin' / must be surprisin' / I'm just surmisin' / I win, thrive, soar / higher, higher higher, more fire."

Meanwhile, Rihanna backs up her sister-in-rhyme as she sings the inspiring chorus, "I came to win / To fight to conquer to thrive / I came to win, to survive / To prosper, to rise, to fly."

The emotional guitar-charged track was produced by hitmaker J.R. Rotem who revealed to PopCrush that the song was tailor-made for the Harajuku Barbie but he wasn't sure if she would like the beat. "As a producer when you make a record for an artist, there's no guarantee that they would take it," he says."But definitely [Nicki] was my first choice."

The producer's next challenge was to get Rihanna to sing the hook on the song, which was difficult to do since the songbird is constantly on tour. "Nicki had the vision for the record [and] was very tenacious about getting Rihanna," Rotem explains. "I remember Rihanna was on tour and she [was supposed to record her part] one day but it kept getting delayed so I really didn't know if it was going to happen."

"But one day, Nicki texted me and said Rihanna was on the record and it sounds amazing. It's one of those things where it came about effortlessly. It was done with an openness and a hopefulness but not knowing if it would pan out when it was all said and done."

Now let's hope the that duo's single flies high on the music charts. Given Minaj and Rihanna's successful string of hit records, it shouldn't be that difficult.

Listen to Nicki Minaj, 'Fly' Feat. Rihanna