Fergie drops fiery collabs with Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj: 'I’m coming out with two bosses'

“I feel like I’m nine months pregnant,” Fergie quips over the phone, discussing her long-awaited second LP, Double Duchess, which will release Sept. 22. Consider labor induced: The album became available for pre-order on Friday and the star shared two brand new tracks, “Hungry,” featuring Rick Ross, which she also dropped the video for, and “You Already Know,” featuring Nicki Minaj.

For the singer-rapper, partnering with Ross has long been in the works. “I used to go hiking up by my house and people would be like staring at me because I’d be blasting Rick Ross in my headphones!” Fergie recalls, laughing. “There’d be kids and like, you know, people of the neighborhood walking by and I’d be like blasting Rick Ross, not giving a f—, and they’re looking at me like, ‘Who is ruining the neighborhood right now?’ And I was dreaming, like, one day do you think I can do a song with him?”

The MC found himself in hot water earlier this year after comments he made about not signing female rosters, but Fergie has nothing but good things to say about working with him. “Even though he has a tough persona,” she says, “he’s also super-duper protective and really endearing.” Plus, “He even gave me another nickname, as if I need one more.” Due to her favored prop in the shot, “He called me Ferrari Fergie.” Laughing, she adds, “Ferrari Fergie, she rockin’ with a boss!”

In the clip, the singer toys with duality. “It very much plays on the soft versus the hard,” she says of the video’s aesthetic. “So if I’m wearing a pink bodysuit, then I’m in a very boyish stance. [Or] I do a lot of menswear in this, but then add a really crisp heel.” This serves a larger purpose. “It’s to remember that tough, underdog mentality that’s always been a part of myself,” Fergie says.

In Minaj, Fergie says she found an equal. “She’s just as detailed as I am,” Fergie explains. “I like when people are like that, because I can understand that. I can’t see something that’s unfinished and be okay putting it out. I don’t want to put out ‘okay’ stuff.”

In the song’s forthcoming clip, which Fergie previewed on Twitter Friday morning, she plays a number of competitive games — ping-pong, chess — but you should notice, she says, that the two women are never seen facing off. “This is about us standing together as #Girlbosses,” she says. “We have both worked very hard for what we have, and still continue to do so. I’m a fighter! And so is she! We have the same goal. I’m all about women not being pitted against each other. I’m about, ‘Let’s stand strong.'”

The rollout for the star’s second album is her most ambitious yet: On Sept. 20, two days before the album drops, Seeing Double, the accompanying visual element featuring a video for every song on the set, will premiere in iPic Theaters across the U.S. “We’re doing something that no one has done before,” she says, “but it’s so worth it.”

Double Duchess is due out Sept. 22. Fergie has shared the track list on her social channels, embedded above.