The opening seconds of Pink Friday 2 sound a lot more like a Billie Eilish record than a Nicki Minaj one. That’s because the album’s first track, “Are You Gone Already,” is built on top of a sped-up sample of Eilish’s “When the Party’s Over,” particularly its harmonized intro.
But Minaj doesn’t stop there. Nine of the 22 tracks on Pink Friday 2 contain a prominent sample (using a section of a previous recording) or interpolation (using a section of a previous melody or lyric without its original recording) of a previous song, from the Notorious B.I.G. sample in “Barbie Dangerous” to the Blondie sample in “My Life.”
This reliance on sampling and interpolating older songs on Pink Friday 2 will not come as a surprise to anyone who has followed the Hot 100 in recent years. Many of the chart’s top hits this decade were built on top of older songs — for example, take Jack Harlow‘s No. 1 “First Class” (which borrows the chorus from “Glamorous” by Fergie), “I’m Good (Blue)” by David Guetta and Bebe Rexha (which takes after “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” by Eiffel 65 and Gabry Ponte), “Kiss Me More” by SZA and Doja Cat (which interpolates “Physical” by Olivia Newton-John), and even Minaj’s own hit “Barbie World” with Ice Spice (which is based on “Barbie Girl” by Aqua).
Sampling has been around since the advent of hip-hop, but this more recent influx seemed to take root at the turn of the decade due to a convergence of factors. In 2020, amid COVID-19 lockdowns, millions of music fans flocked to TikTok, making it an important destination for music discovery. The app tends to favor songs that feature catchy, short sound bites and sampling is an easy way to catch users’ attention quickly. Meanwhile, pop radio remained cautious about adding new songs into circulation, and recognizable samples became a good short-cut to an earworm hit.
At the same time, the music catalog market grew red-hot. Legends like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen sold their catalogs for some of the highest prices in music history, and those steep price tags encouraged buyers to get creative to earn a return on their investments. Companies like Primary Wave began popularizing “flip camps” — songwriting camps dedicated to encouraging the use of their catalogs in newer songs. Even more catalog owners started creating playlists of their songs that are available to sample and pitch them out to songwriters and producers.
While there are great potential upsides to these samples and interpolations, there’s a catch: Minaj will have to share a sizable portion of her publishing and master ownership with the rights holders of those older songs.
Typically, the more integral the sample or interpolation is to the new song, the more leverage the sample or interpolation rights holders have. Ariana Grande‘s “7 Rings” famously had to cede 90% of its publishing to the owners of the Rodgers and Hammerstein catalog because the melody of “My Favorite Things” was such an essential part of “7 Rings.”
Still, as an executive at Primary Wave told Billboard last year about sampling: “if you’re starting off [the songwriting process] with a hit, that’s a great place to be.”
See below for a breakdown of every sample and interpolation on Pink Friday 2.
1. “Are You Gone Already”
Sample: “When the Party’s Over” by Billie Eilish
2. “Barbie Dangerous”
Sample: “Notorious Thugs” by Notorious B.I.G. and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
3. “FTCU”
Sample: “Fuck The Club Up” by Wacka Flocka Flame (Ft. Pastor Troy & Slim Dunkin)
4. “Beep Beep”
5. “Fallin 4 U”
6. “Let Me Calm Down” (ft. J. Cole)
7. “RNB” (ft. Lil Wayne and Tate Kobang)
8. “Pink Birthday”
Sample: “Pornography” by Travis Scott
9. “Needle” (ft. Drake)
10. “Cowgirl” (ft. Lourdiz)
11. “Everybody” (ft. Lil Uzi Vert)
Sample: “Move Your Feet” by Junior Senior
Interpolates: “I Just Wanna Rock” by Lil Uzi Vert
12. “Big Difference”
13. “Red Ruby Da Sleeze“
Sample: “Never Leave You Uh Oooh, Uh Oooh” by Lumidee
14. “Forward From Trini” (ft. Skillibeng and Skeng)
15. “Pink Friday Girls“
Sample: “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” by Cindi Lauper
16. “Super Freaky Girl”
Sample: “Can’t Touch This” by MC Hammer and “Super Freak” by Rick James
17. “Bahm Bahm”
18. “My Life“
Sample: “Heart Of Glass” by Blondie
19. “Nicki Hendrix” (ft. Future)
20. “Blessings” (ft. Tasha Cobbs Leonard)
21. “Last Time I Saw You”
22. “Just The Memories”
