Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj video Beauty And A Beat now online

The Beauty And A Beat video, which hit YouTube yesterday and has already amassed millions of views, sees Justin take control of the camera as he films himself and his friends at a party.

Apparently an attempt to distance the Bieber brand from its tween image, the almost five-minute clip features Justin swimming with bikini-clad girls and also grinding with Nicki Minaj, who raps in the song.

Justin and Nicki are seen getting close in the video (Picture: YouTube)

The launch of the video comes after several publicity stunts designed to drum up interest in the song, the most recent of which saw Justin claim that personal footage of his was stolen last week from his computer.

In fact, text shown at the outset of the video describes the incident and claims that the following clip is the footage 'stolen' from Bieber. The same text also refers to Bieber as a musician.

So dedicated is he to his art, Justin even messed up his famously coiffed hair for the video (Picture: YouTube)

Predictably, Bieber fans have reacted positively to the video, with the name of the song trending on Twitter as the teen star tries to encourage his followers to get the view count for the clip to 10million.

One tweeted: 'Beauty and A Beat was written, filmed, directed and sang by Justin Bieber.. All you haters can just stfu and go back to being irrelevant.'

Another added: 'Beauty And A Beat is such an amazing song, and the video is brilliant!'

VIDEO: Watch Beauty And The Beat