Songs Where the Feature Outshined the Artist

Via Jennifer Newton

When artists collaborate on a song, the hope is that the person featured will enhance the song, but won’t take the spotlight from the artist. Not all songs are like this, though. There are some where the featured portion of the song was much better than the original artist’s. Here is a list of some of those songs. 

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

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

Hey Boy by Omar Apollo (ft. Kali Uchis)

With Apollo essentially only doing the chorus and leaving the verses to Kali Uchis, the song sound more like it would belong on her “Isolation” album and not on Apollo’s. They both compliment each other very well, but Kali 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. But when it came down to debating if I wanted to put this song in my personal playlist, what finally made me do it was when Travis’s verse came on.  

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

Beyonce is only in the chorus and that is all that is needed for her to steal the song from Kanye and her husband. I mean, there is a reason why Beyonce’s chorus is repeated four times, and it’s 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 verse. 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.