Nasty Girls, the fictional female rap group from the new ABC original series Queens, are introducing their alter egos on a fiery freestyle, “The Introduction.” Each member—Eve, Brandy, Naturi Naughton, and Nadine Velazquez, along with Lil Muffin (Pepi Sonuga)—flexes their rhyme skills atop the instrumental for Nas’ real-life 2000 hit, “Oochie Wally.”
First on the mic is R&B songstress Brandy Norwood’s character Xplicit, who sets things off with a slick stanza full of witty one-liners that will have you doubling back for an encore. “My pen-game is Saddam Hussein to your brain / So insane, I got ’em in chains like a slave / Never been afraid, go against the grain like a fade / A renegade, I blew up the lane like grenades,” she barks, displaying a sinewy flow like that of her other alter-ego, B Rocka, the alias she’s rhymed under over the years.
Naturi Naughton’s experience playing raptress Lil Kim in the 2009 film, Notorious, appears to have prepped her for her second coming as lyricist Jill Da Thrill, who kicks flows about evolving from being the daughter of a preacher into a budding superstar in her verse. From there, Butter Pecan, played by Nadine Velazquez, and Lil Muffin, sprinkle in a few quotables for good measure before Eve’s character Professor Sex comes through to shut down the party. She anchors the proceedings with a motivational message of persevering through motherhood and the struggles that come with being an entertainer and life itself.
Rapper Leroy “Aasim” Watson from Bad Boy Records fame, is one of the credited songwriters on the track and spoke about connecting with producer Sean C. as well as the process behind the creation of “The Introduction.”
“Coming from writing “Streets Need A Body” for Powerbook III: Raising Kanan as a Queens M.C, born and raised, that was easy,” Watson told VIBE. “It was crazy when [music producer] Sean C. asked me to write for Queens on ABC because the main characters are [four] women! Sean C. is on the beats and I write for the Nasty B’s characters. We approached making the songs as we would if we were in the studio working on a Puff [Daddy] album. Make the best music possible so when you hear it you feel it!”
Queens premieres tonight (Oct. 19) at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.