Songs Where the Feature Artist Stole the Show

When artists collaborate on a song, the hope is that the person featured will enhance the song, but won’t take the spotlight away from the artist. However, not all songs are like this. There are some tracks where the featured portion was much better than the original artist’s. 

Here are some of those songs: 

Monster by Kanye West (ft. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, and Nicki Minaj)

There’s a lot of artists featured in this song, but the person I want to focus on is Nicki Minaj. My mind immediately goes to Minaj’s line of “ First things first, I eat your brains” when I think of this song. Minaj’s part outshines everyone else, with her catchy lines. At first, I even thought “Monster” was her song and not Kanye’s.

Hey Boy by Omar Apollo (ft. Kali Uchis)

This song sounds more like it belongs on Kali Uchis’ “Isolation” album and not on Apollo’s, since Apollo is essentially only doing the chorus. He left the versus to Uchis. They both compliment each other very well, but Uchis definitely steals the show with her feature. 

Dark Knight Dummo by Trippie Red (ft. Travis Scott)

There are two things that stand out in this song: the beat and Travis Scott’s feature. Trippie’s voice compliments the vibe of the song, as it gives an almost apocalyptic tone. However, when it came down to debating if I wanted to put this song in my personal playlist, what finally made me do it was Scott’s verse.  

Lift Off by Jay-Z and Kanye West (ft. Beyonce)

Beyonce is only in the chorus and that is all that is necessary for her to steal the song from Kanye and her husband, Jay-Z. I mean, there is a reason why Beyonce’s chorus is repeated four times. It is because she’s that good in this song. 

Slide by Calvin Harris (ft. Frank Ocean, Miguel, and Migos)

While Calvin Harris is a producer and doesn’t normally sing in the songs he releases, that doesn’t stop me from thinking that “Slide” is actually by Frank Ocean. Ask your friends. I bet most people will say that “Slide” was by Frank Ocean and not Calvin Harris

Bottoms up by Trey Songz (ft. Nicki Minaj)

Once again, Nicki Minaj takes a song that she’s only featured in and uses her own flair to leave people rewinding the song just to hear her. She has a dynamic energy, where, when you see a song that she is featured on, it is almost always a given that, at the very least, her verse is going to be good.

Summer Bummer by Lana Del Rey (ft. A$AP Rocky & Playboi Carti)

I’ve been a big fan of Lana Del Rey since she released her  “Born to Die” album, but her 2017 “Lust for Life,” in my opinion, is one of her worst albums. What saved it was the songs that had features on them – “Summer Bummer” especially. 

For almost half the song, A$AP Rocky takes over with little appearances of Playboi Carti and it’s the only part of the song that I like. The beat that’s present works well for A$AP Rocky and Carti because it’s what you’d expect when listening to their music. However,  for Lana, it just felt out of place.