Jimmy Fallon once got Ariana Grande to sing “I Can’t Feel My Face” as if she were Celine Dion, so it’s really no surprise that he was the first to learn of Millie Bobby Brown’s rap skills.
Last night, the 12-year-old British actress — who plays the telekinetic lab escapee and frozen waffle connoisseur Eleven in Netflix cult smash Stranger Things — stopped by Fallon’s late night show with her fellow kid cast members. During a game segment called “Stranger Strings,” Brown revealed her hidden talent is crushing one of the best rap verses of the decade: Nicki Minaj’s fanged “Monster.” Brown gets bonus points for firing off the bars while shooting silly string into her colleagues’ faces.
.@Stranger_Things‘s @milliebbrown shows off a hidden talent — rapping @NICKIMINAJ‘s verse from “Monster” pic.twitter.com/4eTTRB5oqA — Fallon Tonight (@FallonTonight) September 1, 2016
Brown is not the only hyper-talented Brit to try her hand at Minaj’s “Monster” contribution. During her Carpool Karaoke segment earlier this year, Adele fully murdered the rhymes that shot the Queens rapper’s career into the stratosphere (and much like everything Adele does, the segment set a new record: it’s Youtube’s most viewed late night clip ever).
Related: Watch Millie Bobby Brown shave her head to become Stranger Things’ Eleven
The verse is significant not simply because it slaps; it marked a major gender milestone in hip-hop. Based on the strength of mixtapes like Beam Me Up Scotty, everybody knew Minaj had the skill and the sauce to make it big. But her inclusion on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy‘s standout — which arrived just a few months before her own platinum-selling debut, Pink Friday — paved the way for a whole new kind of female rapper. Her verse was so outstanding, West considered cutting it.
“I thought about taking Nicki’s verse off of ‘Monster’ because I knew people would say that was the best verse on the best hip-hop album of all time or arguably top ten albums of all time. And I would do all that work, eight months of work on Dark Fantasy, and people to this day would say to me ‘My favorite thing was Nicki Minaj’s verse,'” he told Sway in 2013. In a rare moment of humility, West explained that decision would have, “let my ego get the best of me instead of letting that girl get the shot to get that platform to be all she could be.”
At the time of Adele’s cover, Minaj heaped on the praise for her North London homegirl’s committed delivery: “Pull thru, QUEEN!!!!! #Adele,” the rap icon wrote on Twitter, in between a mural of princess crown and trophy emojis. “#Monster the attitude & fingers to match. #Oh #Ok #IcoNic.” We’re sure she’s a fan of Brown’s bars, too.
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Text Emily Manning
Still from Stranger Things, courtesy of Netflix