Hot on the heels of their recent collaboration ‘Bed’, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj are back at it again with the highly anticipated release of ‘The Light Is Coming’.
The track, taken from Ari’s forthcoming album Sweetener, opens with Nicki’s verse before Ariana delivers an infectious chorus, “the light is coming to give back everything the darkness stole”, and feisty verses. ‘The Light Is Coming’ shows a different side to Ariana and further demonstrates that this new era is set to be her most exciting one yet.
Throughout the song you can hear a man shouting “You wouldn’t let anybody speak!”. According to MTV reporter Madeline Roth, the sample appears to be taken from a CNN archive clip of a man shouting at Sen. Arlen Specter at a Pennsylvania town hall meeting in 2009. A sample of the same speech was used in N.E.R.D.’s ‘Lemon’ last year, creating a link between the two tracks, which were both produced by Pharrell Williams.
Ariana has been teasing the visual for ‘The Light Is Coming’ for some time now. However, the Dave Meyers directed music video will be made available exclusively on Reebok.com from 12pm ET today.
Listen to ‘The Light Is Coming’ below.
Sweetener is due for release on August 17 and is available to pre-order now. According to iTunes, the album will be made up of 15 tracks including ‘The Light Is Coming’ and ‘No Tears Left To Cry’.
Earlier this week, Ariana revealed the album artwork for Sweetener. Straying away from the black and white theme used on her previous three album covers, this time Ariana’s gone for an upside down full colour photo. The songstress tweeted a fan saying “issa new chapter. for the first time my life is in color as well.”
A lot of Ari’s new era is centered around the upside down idea. Speaking about this with a fan on Twitter, the songstress said that her friend inspired the concept and it just felt right to her.
https://twitter.com/ArianaGrande/status/1008519030108540933
Sweetner is available to pre-order now. You can also check out Ariana’s new merch here.