Seeing Green
by Nicki Minaj (featuring Lil Wayne & Drake)

Album: Beam Me Up Scotty (2021)
Charted: 42 12
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Songfacts®:

  • When Nicki Minaj re-released her 2009 mixtape Beam Me Up Scotty on May 14, 2021, she added three new songs, including this YMCMB family reunion where Drake and Lil Wayne join her to flex about their wealth and accomplishments.
  • The rappers each give an individual meaning to the title phrase.

    1. Lil Wayne

    That cash blue, but I'm still seein' green
    I'm in the bathroom, and I'm peein' lean


    Here, "seeing green" has two meanings. According to Genius, "Blue" sounds like "blew," as in Weezy has blown a lot of money, but there's still plenty of green (the color of dollar bills) to be seen.

    Also, Wayne is intoxicated after sippin lean. He is trippin, which is why he's seeing blue bills and his vision is green.

    2. Nicki Minaj

    Ain't no C in green, but I'm seein' green

    The meaning is unclear but some fans speculated it is a poke at CeeLo Green, who in 2020 criticized the sexual content female rappers like Minaj employ in their rhymes. After fans took umbrage he issued an apology.

    3. Drake

    Thought I was seein' things when I was seein' green
    6 G-O-D, CMB, yes sir


    Green is the color of growth, and since his signing by Young Money in 2009, Drake has positioned himself as the GOAT in the rap game; or, according to Drizzy himself, the "6 God."
  • This is the first collaboration between Minaj, Drake and Wayne since their 2017 single "No Frauds." However, the braggadocios lyrical content is a closer fit to their 2014 hook-up on The Pinkprint, "Truffle Butter."
  • Minaj said on Twitter that when she came up with her verse, she had yet to get back to speed after giving birth to her first child in September 2020. The rap queen confessed her Young Money associates had beaten her on this track. "They washed me on 'Seeing Green,'" Minaj said. "I'm a woman enough to admit when I've been washed on a track by the Greats. And it's ok, Barbz, I've washed them before. We'll live through this one. I was still a lil rusty."

    Minaj added that she kept revising her verse over a week-long period and recorded seven different versions before being satisfied with what she'd done.
  • Govi and Kid Masterpiece's beat samples R&B singer Heather Headley's 2006 single "In My Mind."

Comments: 1

  • Texaswhaler from HoustonThat cash blue, but I'm still seein' green ==== The cash blue means blue faces, Blue $100 Bills. Not some nonsense about how much money he blew. lol
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