“Red Ruby Da Sleeze” by Nicki Minaj

The last we heard of Nicki Minaj, she was pretty pissed off that her 2022 hit, “Super Freaky Girl“, was not being nominated for a rap Grammy. From a musical perspective, Nicki can be considered the most-accomplished female rapper in industry history. But pretty amazingly up until this point, she has never actually won a Grammy Award.

That said, even now as a 40 year old wife and mother, Minaj is still hot for the game. So as of 3 March 2023 we were treated to her first single of the year, “Red Ruby Da Sleeze”, which was put out through Republic Records, UMG and the label that put Minaj on, Young Money Entertainment.

THE TEAM BEHIND THE SONG

Interesting to note, especially for those who are actually familiar with the name Lumidee, is that this fellow NYC female hip-hop artist is credited with co-writing “Red Ruby Da Sleeze” alongside Nicki Minaj. 

More specifically, this track samples Lumidee’s 2003 track “Never Leave You (Uh Oooh, Uh Oooh)”, which also happens to be her signature song.

Meanwhile, the producers of Nicki’s outing are:

• Tate Kobang
• Cheeze Beatz
• Go Grizzly

To note, “Red Ruby Da Sleeze” also officially interpolates “Ghetto Red Hot”, a song that legendary Jamaican dancehall artist Super Cat dropped back in 1992.

INTRODUCING… “RED RUBY DA SLEEZE”

Anyone familiar with the Queen of Rap’s artistry knows that she is a performer of many alter egos. And the way the situation reads is as if “Red Ruby da Sleeze” is a reportedly a fresh one, in a manner of speaking, that Minaj has concocted.

As far as Nicki’s alter egos go, we have the likes of Roman Zolanski, Chun Li and of course (Harajuku) Barbie. And again, her diehard fans would be more familiar with what each of these character respectively entail. 

But as for “Red Ruby da Sleeze”, this designation reportedly represents the confrontational side of Minaj’s character. And yes, we do know that when she does decide to get confrontational – particularly against other females, i.e. her rivals, who are the Nicki’s favorite targets – sparks do tend to fly. 

“Red Ruby da Sleeze” may be a new moniker, but this pretty is much the same ol’ Nicki Minaj we’re dealing with here.

So as in the norm when it comes to her songs of such a nature, on her part the challenge is to berate and threaten enemies using the most-colorful figurative references she can think of. Lumidee’s vocal contributions only come in terms of ad-libbing and rendering the outro. That would imply that the song in and of itself was indeed written by Red Ruby, which isn’t particularly a common feat these days, i.e. a major rapper penning an entire track without a group of co-writers. 

With that in mind, while observing some of the metaphors in the lyrics, it’s understandable why many people consider Minaj “the Queen of Rap”.

DON’T MESS WITH NICKI!

That said, there’s only so much we can delve into these lyrics without becoming a bit redundant ourselves. However, what makes this song notable is there being a number of real-life references theoretically embedded herein.

For instance, Nicki did in fact ‘marry a shooter’, i.e. Kenneth Petty, who is a convicted murderer basically. But more to the point as to why she brings up that fact is to let other “ni-gas” know that if they approach her the wrong way, verily she has gun-toting backup. In other words, on this track Nicki is both confronting men and women.

And as for the females who she’s bringing it to, it seems as if Nicki is most notably calling out Latto and Megan Thee Stallion. Minaj probably has beef with more rappers than the late Tupac when he was alive. That is to say that virtually every major female rapper of the last 10-15 years has been on her hit list. 

So when Nicki also makes other statements like taunting someone for posting “botched face photos”, it’s up to the listener to determine which of her many adversaries who may have also had less-than-ideal plastic surgery that the Queen is referring to.

WHETHER FEMALE OR MALE, DON’T F*-K WITH NICKI

Conclusively, we know that rap is a genre where intimidating messages are the norm. In this song’s case, instead of focusing that attention solely on female enemies as she usually does, Minaj is letting both sexes have it.

For the guys, she’s warning that if they were to for instance touch her in an appropriate way, that action may well lead to an early death. As for the women, it’s more along the lines of Nicki once again touting her superiority not only in ruggedness but also influence. 

And yes, she has been historically influential on the genre, being sort of the Madonna of hip-hop, if you will. That’s a fact that Minaj acknowledges and accepts. But what ruffles her feathers is when individuals copy her style without showing proper respect. And all things considered, a good portion of the popular female rappers of today in her mind do fall into that category.

“Bad gyal don’t die-die-die (Brr)
Hundred rounds on that, grrah-ta-ta
Real one lick a shot-ta-ta
She my lil’ vibe, my lil’ ah-ah-ah
Bad gyal don’t run from nobody, like ah
Rude boy want me touchin’ on his body, like yah
Boy affi dead if he ever diss me
You know what to do if he ever miss me”