A recent article from Billboard noted how hip hop has yet to grace the top of either of their two most esteemed charts, the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard 200 albums chart.
The article noted how, by the beginning of last June, six rappers – (Gunna (“DS4Ever”), Lil Durk (“7220”), Tyler, The Creator (“Call Me If You Get Lost”), Pusha T (“It’s Almost Dry”), Future (“I Never Liked You”), and Kendrick Lamar (“Mr Morale & the Big Steppers”) – had boasted No.1 albums.
This is the longest Billboard has gone into a calendar year without a rap album at the top spot since 1993.
The platform attributed this to the genre being in an awkward place in which the new generation was following in the footsteps of the “Drake-J Cole-Nicki Minaj-Kendrick Lamar Mount Rushmore”.
“The genre is in an awkward place where a new class of superstars has yet to supplant the Drake-J Cole-Nicki Minaj-Kendrick Lamar Mount Rushmore of the 2010s,” they wrote.
“As a matter of fact, all four of those artists are still going strong and outperforming the genre’s younger stars; each of the four, bar Kendrick, has already reached the Hot 100’s top 10 this year.”
After a fan tagged Minaj in a post with the aforementioned quote on Twitter, the 40-year-old responded: “This is a beautiful compliment. 🙏 (If they said this).”
“Lol. Chiiii i dont be knowing wtf y’all done made up & slapped these ppl names on w/these articles no more. 😂😂😂😂 But barbz, thank you. I love you so much.”
This is a beautiful compliment. 🙏 (If they said this) Lol. Chiiii i dont be knowing wtf y’all done made up & slapped these ppl names on w/these articles no more. 😂😂😂😂 But barbz, thank you. I love you so much. https://t.co/xqdIFFS1gh
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) June 12, 2023
Five years on from her last studio album, rapper Minaj recently announced that her next album would drop on October 20.
The long-awaited project is a follow up to 2018’s platinum selling “Queen”.