The Queen of the Barbz is back on top — this time making history on her very own.
Nicki Minaj has debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with her newly released single “Super Freaky Girl,” making the hip-hop superstar the first female rapper to debut at the top spot in decades.
Not since Lauryn Hill reached the apex in 1998 with “Doo Wop (That Thing)” has a woman in hip-hop debuted on the pop music chart during her first week out.
According to Billboard’s data tracking service Luminate, the sexually suggestive Rick James-influenced track has been streamed 21.1 million times, garnering 4.6 million radio airplay audience impressions, and sold 89,000 digital downloads in a one-week span.
Minaj, whose legal name is Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty, is also the first female lead artist to have a song debut at No. 1 in 2022. The 10-time Grammy Award nominee previously enjoyed Hot 100 chart-topping success with her appearances on 6ix9ine’s “Trollz” and Doja Cat’s “Say So.”
“You did it barbz. You did it,” she wrote to her fans on social media. “I love you so much. like so so SO much. Thank you.”
The rapper’s record label, Republic Records, announced Monday that she’s also the first female rapper in two years to rise to the top of the Hot 100 without a music video.
Minaj has been tapped to co-host the MTV VMA Awards on Sunday, where she will also be honored with The Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.
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