Turns out those infectious lyrics, "we'll never be royals," were inspired by the reigning prince and princess of rap, Drake and Nicki Minaj, reports Complex.com.
In a recently published chat with Interview magazine, Lorde, the 17-year-old, New Zealand-based singer/songwriter who topped the U.S. charts with her debut single, "Royals," reveals that she was listening to the YMCMB rappers around the time that she wrote her first EP, The Love Club, which spawned the hit.
Basically, she says, what they've been spitting is "irrelevant."
"Around the middle of last year I started listening to a lot of rap, like Nicki Minaj and Drake, as well as pop singers like Lana Del Rey," she told the magazine. "They all sing about such opulence, stuff that just didn't relate to me — or anyone that I knew. I began thinking, 'How are we listening to this? It's completely irrelevant. I basically just wrote what we were all thinking."
And by that she means thoughts like, "Every song's like gold teeth, Grey Goose, trippin' in the bathroom/ Blood stains, ball gowns, trashin' the hotel room ... Everybody's like Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece/ Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash," which she sings on "Royals" with minimalistic vocals laid over a minimalistic beat.
The song, in addition to climbing to No. 1 in the U.S. (and in Belgium, Canda, Ireland, the U.K., and, of course, New Zealand) has also garnered remixes from Rick Ross, Raekwon and The Weeknd.
"I've grown up listening to Raekwon," Lorde gushed to Bow Wow about the remixes, when she visited 106 & Park earlier this month. "The Weeknd's such an influence. All these guys are so good at what they do, it's weird that they care about some teenager from the end of the world, it's so cool."
Lorde also said that day that the rapper to whom she most relates — more so, even than most girls her own age — is Kanye West. "Kanye has such a vision," she said. "It's like he's wearing blinders, he doesn't care about what anybody's doing, he just has this goal and he makes incredible records and changes the game every time he puts something out."
Lorde's debut album, Pure Heroine, dropped stateside Sept. 30.
Click here to watch Lorde talk music and more on 106 & Park!
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In a recently published chat with Interview magazine, Lorde, the 17-year-old, New Zealand-based singer/songwriter who topped the U.S. charts with her debut single, "Royals," reveals that she was listening to the YMCMB rappers around the time that she wrote her first EP, The Love Club, which spawned the hit.
Basically, she says, what they've been spitting is "irrelevant."
"Around the middle of last year I started listening to a lot of rap, like Nicki Minaj and Drake, as well as pop singers like Lana Del Rey," she told the magazine. "They all sing about such opulence, stuff that just didn't relate to me — or anyone that I knew. I began thinking, 'How are we listening to this? It's completely irrelevant. I basically just wrote what we were all thinking."
And by that she means thoughts like, "Every song's like gold teeth, Grey Goose, trippin' in the bathroom/ Blood stains, ball gowns, trashin' the hotel room ... Everybody's like Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece/ Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash," which she sings on "Royals" with minimalistic vocals laid over a minimalistic beat.
The song, in addition to climbing to No. 1 in the U.S. (and in Belgium, Canda, Ireland, the U.K., and, of course, New Zealand) has also garnered remixes from Rick Ross, Raekwon and The Weeknd.
"I've grown up listening to Raekwon," Lorde gushed to Bow Wow about the remixes, when she visited 106 & Park earlier this month. "The Weeknd's such an influence. All these guys are so good at what they do, it's weird that they care about some teenager from the end of the world, it's so cool."
Lorde also said that day that the rapper to whom she most relates — more so, even than most girls her own age — is Kanye West. "Kanye has such a vision," she said. "It's like he's wearing blinders, he doesn't care about what anybody's doing, he just has this goal and he makes incredible records and changes the game every time he puts something out."
Lorde's debut album, Pure Heroine, dropped stateside Sept. 30.
Click here to watch Lorde talk music and more on 106 & Park!
BET.com is your #1 source for Black celebrity news, photos, exclusive videos and all the latest in the world of hip hop and R&B music.
Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.
(Photos: Jason Oxenham/Getty Images; David Becker/Getty Images; Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
