Swalla - Intellectual

Jason had some ideas about production style stuff. He wanted something a little Caribbean, a little funny, something like cultured production. Ricky put some drum stuff together and Jason came in and we started throwing around the Swalla word. Then I was like “Swa-la-la-la”. We were just having fun. It was a fun day and we were just laughing. Songs are better like that when everyone’s just having fun. We kind of laughed an idea into something.

The ODB reference (“Shimmy Shimmy Ya”) came about because I’ve got a hip-hop background and Jason & Ricky love hip-hop. Everyone agreed when we started throwing around “Shimmy shimmy yay, shimmy yay, shimmy ya”. It’s a good play on words. Shout out to ODB!

Nicki is reminding us of her metaphor game and her heavy use of slang.

“Cold” is slang for “impressive”. So when Nicki says her pussy game is cold, she’s not asking for a mink fur coat to warm herself up, she’s just bragging.

The last album Nicki released was The Pinkprint in December of 2014. Two years have passed which has given time for other females to challenge her position in rap. Nicki is declaring that their window of opportunity has passed. She is likely speaking about Remy Ma when referring to someone “throwing shots”. In some of Remy’s most recent freestyles, she appears to be talking subliminally about Nicki, but she denied this during an interview on the Breakfast Club, which has been deleted. Nicki says she isn’t worried since “every line [that she says] sucks” but she sarcastically applauds the effort. Remy Ma has also been out of prison for little over two years.

On February 25, shortly after the song was released, Remy released a diss track called “ShETHER” as a response to her verse in this song as well as “Make Love”, a collaboration with Gucci Mane.

This is a reference to Ty Dolla $ign’s opening line in his verse, “bad girls gon' swalla-la-la.” In his line, Ty Dolla $ign is saying that bad girls, a.k.a. cool girls, swallow when giving head. However, Nicki throws this back by saying that bad girls swallow nothing, “swalla nuttin.”

Nutting is also a slang for men’s cum. She is saying that bad girl don’t swallow when they’re nutting.

Valentino is a luxury Italian fashion house founded by Valentino Garavani. Minaj is a big fan of the brand, and she even met Garavani in 2017.

Minaj wearing a Valentino dress.

Nicki’s foreign car has a cherry red exterior, brown leather interior, and a very loud sound system with the bass slappin' hard in the speakers.

Her music slaps just as hard as Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green slapped Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James in the groin during Game 4 of the 2016 NBA Finals. The slap led to Draymond’s suspension for Game 5 and the rest is history.

Nicki mentioned wanting to use it in a bar back in June 2016:

“Bananas” refers to the clip of an AK-47 machine gun. The magazine of the AK-47 has often been called a “banana clip” because of its long, curved shape. Some gun owners even purchase yellow clips as a nod to this reference.

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“Poppin” is also gun slang, i.e. “pop a cap” means to shoot a bullet. Nicki reminds us that she loves a metaphor: she’s not talking about popping open literal bananas, so no chimps will be invited.

Ty croons about having plenty of women on his roster but met someone special out in Beverly Hills, a city in Los Angeles County. It is home to many celebrities and Rodeo Drive, an upscale shopping district.

“Red bottom heels” is a reference to Christian Louboutin designer shoes with a signature shiny, red-lacquered sole. Most Louboutins are priced starting at $675 and above.

I thought putting Nicki & Ty on it was a great idea. Jason wanted to and Nicki is my big sis so I always opt for her on features since she kills it on everything. Ty is one of my favorite artists. So who better than Ty and Nicki? And they killed it.

Dalai Lama are known to be “peaceful” which is similar to “Dolly Lama”,a word on Nicki’s own app ‘Nictionary’

So Nicki is basically saying she’s peaceful and unbothered because she knows she didn’t just have sex with anybody like how the Dalai Lama is at peaceful place in life.

Also, Dalai Lama sounds like Dalai Llama and llamas tend to spit and Nicki says bad girls don´t swallow.

John Galliano is an iconic fashion designer best known for his work at Dior in the early 2000s. He’s currently the Creative Director of Maison Margiela.

Even without an album out this past year, Nicki has been on the charts with plenty of songs and features, therefore having a “good year.” She makes a pun referencing the iconic Goodyear Blimp, which she doesn’t need to prove that she had a successful year of music.

This line could also be seen as a reference to a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award (being a blimp – which Nicki was nominated for 4 of). The NKCA Blimp, in this context, would be used as a placeholder for award show trophies in general.

Wifing is when a guy makes a lady his main squeeze, and a thot is basically a hoe—the word that represents the ‘H’ in THOT when used as an acronym. A lot of guys think that they’re holding a trophy representing a win if they end up wifing a desirable woman that is known to be promiscuous and has nothing of real value to offer. Nicki thinks these guys are losers and that they are, in fact, not winning since she believes men should be wifing bosses like herself or other respectable women instead of trying to make a hoe a housewife.

This line could also be seen as a low-key shot to her ex Meek Mill—whether they were still together or not when this verse was recorded—saying that whoever he ends up wifing after losing her would be considered a thot by comparison. And, in the opinion of many, Meek got no wins for catching the “Back to Back” beatdown from Nicki’s Young Money label-mate Drake in their battle, which featured the following inspirational line dedicated to Nicki:

Shoutout to all my boss bitches wifing niggas