Following the success of Minaj's debut album,
Pink Friday, Cash Money co-CEO, Brian "
Birdman" Williams announced to
Billboard that Minaj was aiming for a first quarter release in 2012. In November 2011, Minaj announced on
Twitter that the album would be released on February 14, 2012, though it was later delayed to April 3, 2012. The album focuses on Roman Zolanski, one of Minaj's
alter egos that was first featured on
Pink Friday. "Whip It" was written by Minaj, along with
Nadir Khayat,
Alex Papaconstantinou, Björn Djupström,
Bilal Hajji, and
Wayne Hector. Production of the song was handled by
RedOne,
Alex P. Trevor Muzzy and Alex P were responsible for the song's recording, and they were assisted by Jon Sher. Muzzy and Ariel Chobaz mixed "Whip It" with assistance from Sher. Vocal editing of the song was handled by RedOne, Muzzy, and Alex P, while background vocals were provided by RedOne and Jeanette Olsson. Both RedOne and Alex P were solely responsible for "Whip It"'s instrumentation. On May 24, 2012, a poll was posted on Minaj's official website asking fans to choose the next single(s). The poll was divided into three categories. The second category prompted fans to choose between "
Pound the Alarm", "Whip It", and "
Va Va Voom". "Va Va Voom" had the most votes and won the poll. "Whip It" came in second place and "Pound the Alarm" came in third. Moments later, Minaj tweeted: "Oop. Just got word that radio 1 in the uk and nova & 2day fm in australia are runnin w/ #poundthealarm due to the amount of requests". ==Composition==