“BAPS” by Trina (ft. Nicki Minaj)

B.A.P.S. is an acronym (made famous by a 1997 Halle Berry movie) from popular American culture which traditionally stands for “Black American Princesses”.  However, in this song Trina and Nicki Minaj apparently modifying its wording to instead read “Bada*s Pretty Sagittarians”.  But while the intricacies of the terminology may have changed, the meaning by and large has remained the same. And why? Because this song is centered on the artists’ basically boasting about their high social status, which includes a sizable, royal-like income.

But in essence, what this song is truly about is Trina and Nicki Minaj’s manizing. They present themselves as women who have famous musicians and athletes who they treat more or less as playthings.

The chorus of this song is actually interpolated from a turn-of-the-century Cash Money track in which 1990’s rapper Juvenile chants that he desires “a project b*tch”, with ‘the projects’ being the colloquial name for low-income public housing. And this plays back into the original ‘Black American Princesses’ foundation, as Trina and Nicki want the audience to know that despite the high-level dudes and money they are dealing with, indeed even despite their enviable social statuses, they are still straight-up ‘hood. Or as Trina boldly boasts, she will “show you what a project chick is about”.

Facts about “BAPS”

• Both Trina and Nicki Minaj fall under the astrological sign Sagittarius (as Nicki points out in the song), with their respective birthdays being 3 December and 8 December.
• In this track, Trina namedrops a few celebrities (rappers French Montana and Tory Lanez and NBA stars James Harden and Kenyon Martin). FYI, the aforementioned celebrities and Trina actually dated in the past.
• This isn’t Trina’s first collabo with Minaj. Trina featured Nicki before, on her 2010 track “Dang a Lang”.  They also collaborated on a 2009 Gucci Mane track entitled “Sex in Crazy Places” and Yo Gotti’s 2012 song, “5 Star (Remix)”.
• “BAPS” heavily samples the 2000 Cash Money Millionaires’ track “Project B*tch”. As such, a number of Cash Money artists (Birdman, B.G., Juvenile, Lil Wayne and Manny Fresh) are acknowledged as co-writers of this song along with Trina and Nicki Minaj.
• Music producer Audio Jones produced this collabo.
• “BAPS” was released on 19 June 2019, a couple of days prior to the album it is featured on, Trina’s The One.
• Trina teased the release of this track on 7 June 2019 when she posted the tracklist of The One onto the internet.