First of all a big congratulations to both Doja Cat and Nicki Minaj for scoring their first No. 1 hit with Say So (Remix) on Billboard Hot 100 as well as making history as being the first female rap duo to go No. 1. The barbz worked really hard on this one! Another congratulations is in order for Megan Thee Stallion and Beyonce for charting at No. 2 and that makes them apart of this history as for the first time ever four black women occupy the top 2 spots where artists desire to reside.
The real tragedy here is that it took Nicki Minaj almost a decade to go No. 1 and it is no secret that Nicki is one of the biggest pop stars dead or alive of all time. So why the big wait when the queen is the female who has the most hits in the charts and ties in with Elvis Presley. Yes, both Elvis Presley and Nicki Minaj have 109 entries each on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts.
I believe a lot of it has to do with era that Nicki Minaj had her come-up in with tight competition. When she came up in it, a little bit self-centered not everyone knew that she was the queen who had designers like Alexander McQueen working with her (listen to Hello, Good Morning Remix to decode this).
Minaj debuted her album Pink Friday in 2010 when Beyonce was in her prime I Am... Sasha Fierce just dropped the year before as well as Rihanna had just dropped her pop album LOUD and that's just the black pop queens.
Bare in mind that there had also been a rivalry made up by the press between Nicki and Lady Gaga. Gaga, the one who had just dropped Bad Romance in 2009. This was peak pop era where charting was accounted for with pure album sales only.
The 2010s were full of musicians who had talent, aesthetic and the visuals to match something that became less predominant towards the 2020s. The conversation could move toward has billboard been blackballing Nicki Minaj? or that the mere fact is that she and Lil Wayne who single-handedly revived female rap and debuted at No. 2 with Pink Friday were paving the way for other female rappers, such as Cardi B, to debut at No. 1.
It also has been a big coincidence that every time Nicki drops there happens to be a newer artist that the streets are hungrier for, for example the issue with Travis Scott's ASTROWORLD debuting at No. 1 by selling enough tour merch that Billboard accounted for and QUEEN, her biggest era in my opinion, debuting at No. 2.
By following Nicki's career it could be said that the lesson to be learned here is consistency.
Congratulations to Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty!
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