Feeling Myself
Song Meaning

Feeling Myself is about the sheer confidence of being on top: Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé trade boasts about their money, sex appeal, and career dominance in a male-dominated industry 1 2. Rather than telling a linear story, the song functions as a mantra of self-assurance that rejects outside validation, with SZA (who co-wrote the lyrics) framing it as a self-love ode 2 4. Critics have described it as both an ego-trip and a female-empowerment statement, one that positions Minaj and Beyoncé as equals amplifying each other’s status as pop-culture powerhouses 2.

The meaning

At its core, “Feeling Myself” is less a narrative than a mood, a repeated declaration (“I’m feelin’ myself”) that Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé use as a launchpad for verse after verse of boasting. The lyrics revolve around both artists “bragging about themselves” 1, stacking references to black cards, Chanel bags, and Maybachs alongside claims to being a “rap legend” and the “Queen” of the genre. That flex is the point: the song’s verses “emphasize female empowerment in a male-dominated industry, with Minaj asserting dominance through references to her empire and cultural influence” 2, while critics have called it a “wild ego-trip throwdown with Beyoncé” 2.

The chorus, Beyoncé’s looping “feelin’ myself,” has been read as “a mantra of self-assurance and rejection of external validation” 2, which is why the song lands as an empowerment anthem rather than a simple brag track. SZA, who wrote the lyrics, conceived it as “a self-love ode” 4, and that self-love framing runs through lines about sexual confidence (“gimme brain like NYU”) as much as it does through references to wealth. Slant Magazine specifically praised the song as “refreshingly focused on self-stimulation as a means of female empowerment” 2, tying the song’s sexual boldness directly to its larger theme of owning one’s own worth.

Beyond individual confidence, the track is also framed as a statement of solidarity. Minaj and Beyoncé’s pairing has been described as “a partnership of equals... that amplifies black women’s solidarity and mogul status” 2, with Beyoncé’s post-chorus lines about having “changed the game with that digital drop” nodding to her surprise-release strategy and positioning her as, in one writer’s words, “a female pioneer in music” 5. Rolling Stone noted that the song lets Minaj “reveal a more authentic side” of herself, a moment of pure confidence set against the more introspective tone of the rest of *The Pinkprint* 2.

Ultimately, writers have connected the song’s function to how it’s consumed as much as what it says: “when you sing along, you’re letting the world know that now the song’s message is about you” 3. It has been described as picking up the torch from “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves” but “twisting that universal message into one that serves more of an ego-stroke” 3, a shift from collective anthem to personal, in-the-moment self-affirmation. That’s why the song reads less as a story with a message and more as a feeling: an unapologetic celebration of success, sexuality, and self-worth that listeners are invited to claim as their own 3 5.

Last updated 2026-07-28