Understanding Nicki's First Era

[DiscoHeaven23 35,007]

I wanted to make this thread to look at Nicki Minaj's rise to fame her first era. Some may think that "Super Bass" was the lead single to Pink Friday and that Pink Friday debuted at #1 because its peak is #1, but that's not the case. "Super Bass" was actually the 7th single intended to be from Pink Friday and Pink Friday debuted at #2. 

 

So let's take a look. (U.S. ONLY)

 

Nicki Minaj became known to mainstream audiences in late 2009, as part of the group Young Money. She was featured on the song "Bed Rock" (released in November 2009) that the group Young Money put out. The song peaked at #2 on the charts and featured artists Lil Wayne, Gudda Gudda, Drake, Tyga, Jae Millz and Nicki Minaj 

 

The next single Young Money released with Nicki Minaj was "Roger That". The song became a single in March of 2010 at peaked at #56. The song featured Minaj, Tyga and Lil Wayne. 

 

 

It was then time for Nicki to start her own solo career. The label decided to release "Massive Attack" as Nicki's lead single to her debut album. This happened in April of 2010. The song failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. It was after this lack of success that the label decided to scrap "Massive Attack" as the lead single and the song never made the cut for Pink Friday. 

 

 

In June of 2010, Nicki and her team gave it another shot and released "Your Love" as the new lead single. This song performed far better than "Massive Attack", peaking at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 (spending 20 weeks on the chart). It reached #22 on Pop Radio and #5 on Rhythmic Radio, 

 

 

On September 3rd, Nicki and will.i.am released the song "Check It Out". While the song did end up on Pink Friday, the song wasn't released in promotion of the album. The song peaked at #24 (spending 13 weeks on the chart). Nicki next OFFICIAL single, "Right Thru Me", was released just 10 days later. "Right Thru Me" peaked at #26 on the Hot 100 (spending 19 weeks on the chart), peaking at #32 on Pop Radio and #7 on Rhythmic Radio. 

 

 

The label then decided to released Nicki's first album on November 19th of 2010. The album debuted at #2, selling 375,000 copies. She was bested by the debut of Kanye's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy", which sold 496,000 copies. 

 

 

In December, Nicki's next single from the album was chosen. It would be "Moment 4 Life" featuring Drake. It became her highest peaking song as a solo artist at the time. It peaked at #13 on the Hot 100 (spending 23 weeks on the chart). The song climbed to #18 on Pop Radio and #2 on Rhythmic Radio 

 

 

In February of 2011, Pink Friday went #1 on the Billboard Albums chart. However, it was a slow weeks for sales because the album only sold 45K that week (which i find odd for 2011). The climb that week was due to her Saturday Night Live performance and viral videos of Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez singing "Super Bass". 

 

 

"Did It On'Em"  was released as the next single in March of 2011. It was released to Urban radio. The song peaked at #49 on the Hot 100, spending 15 weeks on the chart.

 

 

Since "Did It On'Em" didn't do too well, "Super Bass" was released as the next single in April of 2011. As we all know, "Super Bass" became a massive summer smash in 2011, peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and staying on the chart for 39 weeks. The song peaked at #3 on Pop Radio and #1 on Rhythmic Radio. 

 

 

The final US single from Nicki's album Pink Friday, was her song with Rihanna, "Fly". The song was released on August 30th of 2011. The song climbed to #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 (spending 20 weeks on the chart). It peaked at #16 on Pop Radio and #8 on Rhythmic Radio. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pop Music 20,522]

13 minutes ago, DiscoHeaven23 said:

OMFG A THROWBACK BOP 

[BLACKOUTbritney 22,264]

375k first week sales in 2010 and virtually no hit, wow I'm actually suripised and congrats to her cause thats amazing 

[DiscoHeaven23 35,007]

Just now, BLACKOUTbritney said:

375k first week sales in 2010 and virtually no hit, wow I'm actually suripised and congrats to her cause thats amazing 

im not even a fan of Nicki anymore, but i have to agree with you. that's a massive feat. i was shocked when i was writing this and saw that number

[aaron l 11,999]

Wasn't Super Bass a deluxe track?

[juju 18,907]

I just remember every Friday she'd ask fans to send her pictures of them in pink.  I sent like 5 pictures, all paid dust  

It was an interesting era though. 

[juju 18,907]

Just now, aaron l said:

Wasn't Super Bass a deluxe track?

yes it was a bonus track, not on the standard tracklisting

[Bebe 16,908]

Nicki also featured on tracks like:
Bottoms Up #6
My Chick Bad #11

Before Pink Friday was dropped that had pretty good chart success.

Her features on tracks like Hello Good Morning (remix) with Diddy, Lil Freak with Usher, Up Out My Face with Mariah, 5 Star Bitch with Yo Gotti had also racked up a lot of attention within the Urban community especially as well as some tracks with the likes of Sean Kingston and Jay Sean that had been top 40. She was killing every verse she put out. She also had verses with the likes of Christina and Rihanna even if they were not huge hits, it was on their albums and they have a following. People ****ed with her crazy verses and wanted to see what she could do on her album (that also happened to feature Eminem, Rihanna, Drake, will.i.am, Kanye West and Natasha Bedingfield).

Then her feature on Monster with Jay and Kanye came out soon after her album dropped which blew up.

All of that combined with the fact she was the first female rapper to have that sort of success in what seemed like a lifetime meant that there was a lot of hype around her. Her success is well deserved, she hustled hard and still does.

[Green Detox 2,779]

375k pure sales wow. Let's see if this female rapper would be able to achieve that

[sipthistea 21,099]

So thanks to TS, Nicki could take off