Nicki Minaj Scores Third No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 With ‘Pink Friday 2’

Keith Caulfield
·6 min read
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Nicki Minaj’s Pink Friday 2 debuts atop the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Dec. 23), marking her third leader — and the most No. 1s among female rappers. She previously led the tally with Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded in 2012 and her debut studio set Pink Friday in 2011.

Pink Friday 2 launches with 228,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 14, according to Luminate. That sum marks the largest week for a rap album by a woman in the 2020s decade, and the biggest for an R&B/hip-hop album by a woman this year.

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The set also sold 25,000 copies sold on vinyl — the largest week for a rap album by a woman since Luminate began electronically tracking sales in 1991.

Pink Friday 2 was preceded by a trio of charting songs on the Billboard Hot 100: “Super Freaky Girl” (No. 1 in 2022), “Red Ruby Da Sleeze” (No. 13, 2023) and “Last Time I Saw You” (No. 23, 2023).

In total, Pink Friday 2 marks Minaj’s seventh top 10 album, the entirety of her charting efforts, on the Billboard 200. She has also hit the region with The Pinkprint (No. 2, 2015), Queen (No. 2, 2018), Beam Me Up Scotty (No. 2, 2021) and the best-of compilation Queen Radio: Volume 1 (No. 10, 2022).

Also in the new top 10 of the Billboard 200, Tate McRae lands her first top 10-charting set with the No. 4 arrival of Think Later.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Dec. 23, 2023-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Dec. 19. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

With a third No. 1 on the Billboard 200, Minaj breaks out of a tie with Foxy Brown for the most leaders among female rap artists. Minaj is also the first female rapper with No. 1 albums in two different decades, as she logged her first two leaders in the 2010s, and her third came in the 2020s.

Of Pink Friday 2’s 228,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Dec. 14, SEA units comprise 129,000 (equaling 169.87 million on-demand official streams of the 22 songs on the streaming edition of the album), album sales comprise 92,000 and TEA units comprise 7,000.

With 169.87 million on-demand official streams generated by Pink Friday 2’s songs, the set garners Minaj’s largest streaming week ever, the 2020s decade’s biggest streaming week for a rap album by a woman, and 2023’s largest streaming week for any R&B/hip-hop album by a woman.

As Pink Friday 2 sold 92,000 copies, the album registers the biggest sales week for any rap album by a woman in the 2020s decade and the largest sales week for an R&B/hip-hop album by a woman in 2023.

Pink Friday 2‘s sales were bolstered by the album’s availability across a range of variants, in both digital download and physical configurations on its street date (Dec. 8). It was issued as a 10-track album in two CD editions (a standard version and a signed version sold through Minaj’s webstore) and four vinyl editions (including three retailer-exclusive versions, all with different covers and color vinyl).

Concurrently, an expanded 22-song version of Pink Friday 2 was issued via digital retailers, in both a clean and explicit edition. Four later iterations of the digital album were released through the tracking week through Minaj’s webstore, in both clean and explicit versions, all with alternative cover art, and sold for $5 each. On Monday (Dec. 11), a 23-track version added a remix of the album’s “Beep Beep” with 50 Cent. Tuesday brought a 23-track edition with the bonus track “Love Me Enough,” featuring Monica and Keyshia Cole. Wednesday saw the 22-track edition drop with a new alternate cover. Finally, on Thursday, a 24-track version dropped containing both the “Beep Beep” remix and “Love Me Enough.”

Pink Friday 2 sold 25,000 copies on vinyl in its first week, scoring the largest sales week for a rap album by a woman since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991.

At No. 2 on the Billboard, Taylor Swift’s chart-topping 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is a non-mover with 109,000 equivalent album units earned (up 7%). It’s the first time in nine months that the top two albums are by female artists. It last happened on the March 11-dated list, when Karol G’s Mañana Será Bonito was No. 1 and SZA’s SOS was No. 2.

Interestingly, this week marks the fifth time Minaj and Swift have occupied the top two positions on the chart together. They first did so on the Jan. 22, 2011-dated chart, when Swift’s Speak Now was No. 1 and Minaj’s Pink Friday was No. 2. Then, for three weeks in a row in January of 2015 (Jan. 3-17), Swift’s 1989 was No. 1 while Minaj’s The Pinkprint was No. 2.

Minaj’s frequent collaborator Drake is No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with his former leader For All the Dogs, which is steady with 68,000 equivalent album units (down 10%). Drake is also a featured artist on Pink Friday 2, along with fellow Billboard 200 chart-toppers 50 Cent, J. Cole, Future, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Wayne and Monica.

Tate McRae lands her first top 10-charting album on the Billboard 200 as Think Later bows at No. 4. The set starts with 66,000 equivalent album units — her biggest week yet. Of its starting sum, SEA units comprise 58,000 (equaling 75.99 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs), album sales comprise 8,000 and TEA units comprise less than 1,000.

Think Later was preceded by McRae’s first top 10-charting hit on the Billboard Hot 100, “Greedy,” which reached the top 10 in November and has so far climbed to No. 7 (as of the most recently published chart). The album also houses her latest Hot 100 entry, “Exes,” which has thus far peaked at No. 34.

The rest of the top 10 on the new Billboard 200 is comprised of former No. 1s, including three more Swift titles. Michael Bublé’s Christmas is a non-mover at No. 5 (64,000 equivalent album units; up 7%); Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time falls 4-6 (63,000; down 3%); Swift’s Midnights dips 6-7 (57,000; up 4%), SZA’s SOS descends 7-8 (53,000; up 2%); Swift’s Lover climbs 11-9 (49,000; up 13%) and Swift’s Folklore falls 9-10 (49,000; up 5%).

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.

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