Beez in the Trap

"Beez in the Trap" is a song by American hip hop recording artist Nicki Minaj featuring fellow American rapper 2 Chainz. It serves as the third single from her second studio album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, preceded by "Starships" and "Right By My Side". The song premiered on DJ Flex's radio show at Hot 97 on March 20, 2012. The song peaked at #48 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #7 on the hot rap charts. An accompanying music video for the track was released on Vevo in early April 2012.

Critical reception
"Beez in the Trap" received positive reviews from music critics, with several commenting positively on Minaj's performance. Although he felt that the song "lack[ed] real substance", Adam Fleischer of XXL praised "Beez in the Trap", calling it a "memorable moment" of Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, and also complimented Minaj's "unique energy and distinct personality" displayed in the song. Ryan Dombal of Pitchfork Media described "Beez in the Trap" as a "effortless, pinging schoolyard taunt", and, in a separate review of the song for the same publication, Carrie Battan complimented Minaj's "daunting swagger", writing that she "hits a spot sweet enough to render every single gripe obsolete for four and a half minutes". In her review of Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded for The A.V. Club, Genevieve Koski described Minaj's performance as "relatively sedate but incredibly sharp": she called the song's production "spare" and "sonar-blip", and noted Minaj to be "at her most verbose" during the first six songs of the album.

Tom Ewing, writing for The Guardian, felt "Beez in the Trap" showed Minaj's awareness of her "divided fanbase": he noted that whilst Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded contained songs that were "precision-tooled for the modern pop environment", "Beez in the Trap" places more emphasis on Minaj's rapping ability, writing that the song "throw[s] a bone to the listeners who just want to hear her rap". Rob Markman of MTV News commended the performance of 2 Chainz, calling his verse in the song "charismatic", and went on to write that he "doesn't compromise a thing spitting alongside the multiplatinum rapper". No Ripcord stated that "I Am Your Leader and Beez In The Trap are thrilling and make good use of cameos". Slant Magazine stated that "I Am Your Leader and Beez in the Trap [are] two excellent tracks which manage to sound both bubbly and heavy as Minaj delivers her most effortlessly entertaining shit-talk to date".

Singer Erykah Badu had performed at the Afro Punk concert in Brooklyn, New York On September 1, 2012. Reportedly, Badu had apparently "dissed" Minaj's song. She then stated towards the crowd saying about the song "“Bitch you don’t beez in no trap”". She then performed her own parody of the song called "Cheese in the trap".

Music video
Minaj filmed the official music video for "Beez in the Trap" on March 18, 2012 in Miami. It was directed by Benny Boom. The video, which featured 2 Chainz, was premiered on April 6, 2012 on Minaj's official VEVO account. As of August 2012, the video has over 60 million views.

Synopsis
The video begins with Minaj squatting down wearing a blonde wig in a pink turtleneck onesie, with barb wire as a foreground. A clip is shown of women and men partying in a strip club. Minaj is then sitting in a club with many strippers, and exotic dancers in a green wig, she and her female friends sit down in bikinis flashing money, and act flirtaciously with one another. Then 2 Chainz appears rapping his verse, while Minaj is seen beside him dancing very seductively in a leopard print bodysuit in a dark lit room. Throughout the video clips of Minaj and others are seen partying, and drinking. Birdman makes an apperance in the video. Towards the end Minaj raps her second verse in a bikini with her hype man "SB" behind her, and she is in the same dark lit room with strippers sensually dancing on her. The video ends with Minaj and 2 Chainz back to back.

Live Performances
Minaj performed the song live for the first time on 106 & Park on April 3, 2012, along with "Champion", "Roman Reloaded", "Right by My Side", "HOV Lane", "I Am Your Leader", and "Fire Burns". She performed the song after "Champion" at the BET Awards 2012 along with 2 Chainz. The song was also performed live at Radio 1's Hackney Weekend on June 23, 2012. Minaj has added the song to the setlist of her Pink Friday Tour, where she performed the song with 2 Chainz in the North American leg.

Chart Performance
The song debuted at number 73 on the Hip Hot Digital Singles chart on the week ending of August 15, 2012. As of August 14, 2012 the song has sold over 500,000 + copies in the United States

Credits and personnel
The credits for "Beez in the Trap" are adapted from the liner notes of Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded.
 * Recording
 * Recorded at: Conway Studios in Los Angeles, California.


 * Personnel
 * Nicki Minaj – songwriting, vocals
 * 2 Chainz – songwriting, vocals
 * Kenoe – production, songwriting
 * Ariel Chabaz – recording, mixing
 * Finis White – recording
 * Jon Sher – recording and mixing assistant
 * Brian "Big Bass" Gardner – mastering

Certifications
{| class="wikitable" !scope="col"|Country !scope="col"|Certification
 * United States
 * style="text-align:center;"|Gold
 * style="text-align:center;"|Gold