Oh, she is washed! Nicki Minaj should retire! Cardi B is better than her! She is too provocative! Many more things have been said against Nicki Minaj, the undisputed queen of rap. However, after a long hiatus of five years, Minaj has released another chart-topping album titled ‘Pink Friday 2’ which critics and some fans, as well as other artists’ stans, said was a flop. However, the charts say that she is the only female rapper to have three albums that have topped the Billboard 200 chart.
Nicki Minaj had a mic, a pen, and a dream to not just be a rap artist but a rap mogul. There were male artists like Sean “Diddy” Combs, Jay-Z, and Kanye West who were not just producers or rappers, but entrepreneurs. She wanted to reach that level of success in a male-dominated, especially white-male, industry. The rapper came out of Queens, New York, and released some mixtapes, including ‘Itty Bitty Piggy’. In 2010, she released one of the most successful debut rap albums, titled ‘Pink Friday’. A decade later, she has still maintained longevity and is getting closer to her dream of being a rap mogul! But is she the best female rapper alive?
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Nicki Minaj Brought Business And Bops Taking Forward The Female Rap Legacy
It was the year 2010 when some of rap games’ biggest stalwarts came together for a Kanye West song, and there was a newcomer who just released mixtapes. That one-comer was Nicki Minaj, who bodied the song ‘Monster’ when there were Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Bon Iver, and Kanye West. The verse was so good that Ye was thinking of removing it from the song. That same year, she released her debut album, titled ‘Pink Friday’, which went on to sell 375k copies in its first week.
In the ‘Monster’ verse, Nicki Minaj said, ‘50k for a verse, no album out’, and Minaj made millions selling album copies. She has brought business for female rappers into the mainstream. There were conversations about the business when talking about female rappers back in the day: Lil Kim, Queen Latifah, and Lauryn Hill. But Minaj’s career opened the conversation as she was sitting on chart-topping singles and an album when she debuted.
When rappers today are so fazed by record labels and try to maintain a certain image of their talent, Young Money gave her that creative space to write, record, and produce songs and albums independently. It proved that if you let artistic liberty take preference, business flourishes. She had two chart-topping albums, ‘Pink Friday’ and ‘Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded’.
Before the release of her 2018 album ‘Queen’, Nicki Minaj had a hate train that heavily affected her career. It all started after Remy Ma released ‘Shether’, which took jabs at Minaj’s life and career.
There were accusations of the rapper gatekeeping the space for female rappers, as before Cardi B, it was dominated by Minaj. Labels started to get industry plants to replace the ‘Ganja Burn’ singer. There were speculations that after her 2018 flopped, her career ended, but her fandom, Barbz, kept the wheel going for the rapper, and after five years, she released another successful album.
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The Rapper Reigns The Charts Again And Creates History With ‘Pink Friday 2’
When the album ‘Pink Friday 2’ by Nicki Minaj was announced, many people criticized it for ruining the original, had issues with the date, or continued the 2018 hate train. While Minaj remained calm, Barbz was trying to promote the album in the best way possible. They came up with an AI-generated city, calling it ‘Gag City’. Many brands, like Oreo and Grindr, hopped onto the trend.
When ‘Pink Friday 2’ was released, critics audiences wrote off the album immediately. Many content creators, some of them Barbz and self-proclaimed critics, heavily criticized the album. However, proving the critics and these haters wrong, Minaj has written history with this new album. It sold 288k units and became her third album to top the Billboard 200 list, making her the only female rapper to achieve this feat. Along with this, she has five singles, after ‘Starships’, to reach 1 billion streams.
Today, many artists, veterans, and newcomers have given their flowers to Nicki Minaj to pave the way for many rappers to put their foot down and grab a seat at the table. She is definitely on her way to becoming a mogul, as she has established her label and signed various artists, including London Hill. She revived the ‘p***y rap’ with the provocative video for ‘Anaconda’, displaying her lyrical prowess at the same time.
The industry has become a stifling place to be. It is pitting female rappers against each other. Women today, due to social media, have faced a lot of flak for provocative lyrics, imagery, and unoriginal music. The males have gotten a free pass to sexualize women, but women celebrating it has been a problem. Talking about female erotic power, Queen Latifah said, “Somebody is finally saying it in plain English: If you cum then I’m gonna cum. If he’s gonna get what he wants then I’m gonna get what I want.”
Nicki Minaj broke all the shackles that held many female rappers back in the day and mainstreamed the power of women in rap, which has been predominantly a male field. Artists like Doja Cat are looking up to her; she has been on the radar of up-and-coming artists and given them chart-topping hits. She has revolutionized the movement of the pen and set the precedent that a woman can be a mogul if she believes in her artistic capabilities in hip-hop, but one thing is sure: “You can’t wear a Nicki wig and then be Nicki.” Period.
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