It may have lacked the thematic diversity that made ‘Pink Friday’ a classic, but there’s no denying the impact Nicki Minaj’s latest LP ‘Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded‘ made on a global chart scale this year.
The second highest selling US Rap album after Drake‘s ‘Take Care‘, the album has seen Minaj follow a trend set by her ‘Fly‘ collaborator Rihanna which saw the bulk of her success amassed outside of her domestic market, in the face of ‘slow burner’ sales inside of it.
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As of this week, ‘Reloaded’ extends Minaj’s run as the fastest selling Female Rapper of all time with 1.4 million units sold worldwide since April 3rd.
Interesting, considering the project under performed in the US with less than 800,000 units moved in the mark since the same date- despite its lead single ‘Starships‘ boasting sales of over 4 million units moved in the US alone.
Undoubtedly thanks to her ‘Pink Friday: Reloaded’ arena tour, the Rapper’s global success now makes her just 600,000 units away from hitting the 2 million mark, just in time for the release of its hotly anticipated follow up.
Why’s this frustrating? Well, if the project was able to move this many units world wide in the face of its ‘messy’ promo machine, one can only imagine how much it would have sold if armed with stronger material and in tact releases. Releases, that would have seen Nicki actually perform the singles she put out.
For as it stands, she has never performed on British television and is yet to perform ‘Va Va Voom’ on US television, embarrassing facts we’d say are to blame for her lack of a #1 single, despite already having the radio push she would need to make that happen.
With album #3, we hope Nicki draws on ‘The Re-Up‘s production and ‘Friday‘s look and lyrics to deliver a clean cut Rap piece which serves more than just ‘sh*tting on the competition‘ and ‘b*tches is my sons‘ one liners. A Rap piece, which delivers the fire we caught in ‘Leader‘, the fearlessness we loved in ‘Catch Me‘, and the fun she flaunted in ‘Super Bass‘.