Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Amazon – Ariana Grande performs onstage at the Amazon Music Unboxing Prime Day event on July 11, 2018 in Brooklyn, N.Y.
If the first few tastes of Ariana Grande’s upcoming Sweetener album have gotten your blood moving, you’re in good company because Ari feels exactly the same way. With just two weeks to go before her fourth studio effort drops, Grande pulled back the curtain a bit more on its creation on Thursday night (Aug. 2) in a short clip from her studio sessions with Pharrell Williams.
Though the singer is only heard off-camera speaking to Skateboard P — who is seated at a keyboard — their exchange says a lot about how much emotion Grande has poured into the project. “These two I feel like sound like my DNA,” Grande says after Pharrell offers an emphatic “oof” following what you have to imagine was a stellar vocal performance. “Does that make sense? Or how I wish I felt. [laughs] Not how I feel, but how I’m striving to feel.”
In a glimpse at how the producer-singer dynamic can play out in the studio, Pharrell then plays guru to Grande by projecting into a future time when she performs the unnamed track on stage. “Listen, when you sing these songs on stage, okay, you will tell people the story of how you felt when we were doing this song,” he says. “That is what’s so amazing. You will have this to look back on.” And then, with heavy reverb on her voice, Grande adds, “It’s an escape.”
Check out the video below.
two weeks đ pic.twitter.com/6OURWrMMvM
— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) 3 Đ°ĐČĐłŃŃŃĐ° 2018 Đł.
Also on Thursday, Grande tamped down any speculation that there might be beef between her and her “Bed” collaborator, Nicki Minaj after news emerged that Minaj had pushed back the release of her Queen album to Aug. 17, the same day Sweetener is due. Grande took to Twitter to shut that nonsense down quickly. “is this what’s going on today? Imma jus stop logging in at all lmfao. That’s my f—ing sister. She’s clearing a sample. buy and stream Queen & Sweetener Aug 17 bye. these numbers don’t mean as much to the artist as they do to y’all. jus want y’all to listen to the project,” she wrote.
