“Hot Girl Summer” is the highly-anticipated seasonal smash-hit by Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion, who enlisted Ty Dolla $ign for the chorus, and the self-professed rap Queen, Nicki Minaj for a featured verse.

Megan first mentioned the song on July 18, 2019, via Twitter:

I feel like it’s only right I drop a hot girl summer song before the summer is over

Two days later, the rapper took to Instagram to tease a short snippet of one of her verses. Eight days after that, a longer snippet and official announcement followed, with Megan stating the track would be dropping on August 2, 2019.

On July 28, 2019, Megan had her first formal conversation with Nicki Minaj, via Instagram Live. Megan teased Nicki about her busy schedule stopping her from getting involved with the song, and hinted that if Nicki could free up her time, there would be a free space on the track.

Following this, on August 1, 2019, Megan took to Twitter to explain that the song’s release date would be delayed by seven days, but would also be “so worth the wait.” This lead to speculation that Nicki Minaj would appear on the track and needed extra time to add her verse.

On August 5, 2019, this theory was confirmed by Megan herself on Instagram:

THE HOT GIRLS TOOK OVER THE MF SUMMER SO IT WAS ONLY RIGHT TO GIVE THE HOTTIES THE OFFICIAL TRACK !!! HOT GIRL SUMMER FT. @nickiminaj and @tydollasign dropping 8/9 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Moments later, Nicki also promoted the song on Instagram. Both women shared the album artwork in their posts. An excerpt from Nicki’s caption reads:

Did I really do a verse for this song the night we got off that live?

The track’s music video released on September 3rd, 2019.