Nicki Minaj explained how she wrote the song in a post on X:
This is mad funny b/c that was the song I wrote in 5 mins one day for Call Of Duty 🤣😂. Once I kept it for my album, I still didn't even rlly know if it made sense on PF2. I didn't wanna send it to Uzi b/c I thought he’d be over it. Instead he was like this hard af! Uzicito[2]
The song received generally positive reviews. Frazier Tharpe of GQ wrote "'Everybody' has all the makings of a party pleaser: high energy, an earworm of a sample, and deceptively simple lyrics, with Nicki and Uzi punching each line in on Junior Senior's all-too-familiar mewl of 'Everybody-y-y.' It's the kind of song where a casual listener doesn't need to know what the hell Nicki's talking about to have fun, but the rest of us can appreciate the demented thrill of her spitting things like 'We gon' spin and kill [Everybody!]'—threatening drive-bys, by way of one of early-aughts club music's most earnest feel-good hits."[1] Nick Levine of NME described the song as a "frantic banger" and commented "It's the quirkiest moment on an album where Minaj is generally more restrained than in the past."[6]Clash's Robin Murray stated "There's a heartening element of familiarity here, too, with Nicki assembling some crowd-pleasing samples. Just check out 'Everybody' – a Junior Senior aided throwback – to see what we mean. It's fun as hell, and deliciously entertaining."[7]Alexis Petridis of The Guardian wrote the song "is both a potential hit and annoying enough to make "Barbie World" sound understated – but they feel like outliers on an album less reliant on immediately recognisable hooks than moody atmospherics, creative production and Minaj's considerable skills on the microphone."[8]Pitchfork's Julianne Escobedo Shepherd regarded the song as a "grower".[9] Reviewing Pink Friday 2 for The New York Times, Jon Caramanica stated "In the last couple of years, instantly recognizable references have become cheat codes for pop and rap stars, but obvious sampling has also been a staple in emergent drill and club music scenes", before writing that on the song "Minaj is toying with the way those two approaches aren't so dissimilar. It's one of the most invigorating performances she gives here, because she is an elastic enough rapper to both rough up pop sheen and smooth out underground rowdiness at once."[10]Maura Johnston of Rolling Stone commented that "Move Your Feet" "gets chopped up enough that it's made frantic on the Lil Uzi Vert-assisted gasconade 'Everybody'".[11] Nick Malone of PopMatters wrote "Interpolating Junior Senior's 'Move Your Feet' into an infectious and endless string of 'body' punchlines, it's uncharted territory for Minaj and dancefloor gold. (It's worth noting that despite the sample-heavy beat, it avoids the stench of thirsty radio bait present on 'Super Freaky Girl'.)"[5] Ben Devlin of MusicOMH stated the song "may be a blatant attempt to cash in on 'Just Wanna Rock', but its formula works and the Junior Senior chops are great fun, darting in between the booming Jersey Club beats courtesy of DJ Smallz 732."[12]
