The numbers are in: Nicki Minaj‘s “Pink Friday 2” is the No. 1 album in the United States, touting the biggest debut sales week for a rap album by a woman in the last four years. The record joins the original “Pink Friday,” Minaj’s 2010 debut album, as her third overall record to hit the peak of the list alongside 2012’s “Roman Reloaded.” With this, Minaj now claims the most chart-topping albums to date for a female rapper.
“Pink Friday 2” opened with the equivalent of 228,000 albums sold in the week ending Dec. 14, according to data provided by Luminate. Notably, “Pink Friday 2” was also a top seller on vinyl, logging 25,000 copies sold — the highest figures for a rap album by a woman since Lumnate began calculating vinyl sales in 1991. The 22-song record welcomed guest verses from Drake to Lil Wayne, J. Cole, 50 Cent and more, while also sampling Billie Eilish, Blondie, Rick James and numerous others. It was also preceded by the announcement of a 2024 arena tour that is set to launch in March.
Shortly after its release, Minaj took to X (formerly Twitter) to claim the Billboard charts were going to disqualify 100,000 of its sales because she had encouraged a contest that urged fans to buy four copies each. A majority of these tweets, in which she alleged that she was being “punished” for “making great music [and] having great fans,” have since been deleted.
Despite the protests, Minaj still managed to lead with flying colors while Taylor Swift’s “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” followed at No. 2 with 109,000 units and Drake’s “For All the Dogs” at No. 3 with 68,000 units.
Aside from Minaj’s new release, rising star Tate McRae landed her first top 10-charting album on the Billboard 200 with a strong 66,000 units at No. 4 for her latest “Think Later.” The set had a strong streaming presence, logging nearly 76 million streams. Ahead of her record’s release, McRae also reaped her first top 10-charting hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Greedy.” The song sits at No. 9 on this week’s list.
A large chunk of this week’s Top 10 records are Swift’s: “Midnights” is No. 7, “Lover” is No. 9 and “Folklore” rounds it out at No. 10. Aside from that, SZA’s “SOS” is No. 8, Michael Bublé’s “Christmas” is at No. 5 and Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time” is No. 6.
As for the singles chart, Mariah Carey reclaims the throne with “All I Want For Christmas Is You” at No. 1 with 42 million streams. The 1994 single has led the Hot 100 for consecutive weeks annually since 2019, largely thanks to it becoming a mainstay on holiday playlists across most DSPs.
Outside of McRae at No. 9 and Jack Harlow’s “Lovin On Me” at No. 6, the rest of the Top 10 on the Hot 100 is complete with yuletide cheer: Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” is at No. 2; Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” holds at No. 3; Wham!’s “Last Christmas” keeps at No. 4; Burl Ives’ “A Holly Jolly Christmas” is No. 5; Andy Williams’ “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” is No. 7; The Ronettes’ “Sleigh Ride” is at No. 8 and lastly, Dean Martin’s “Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!” is No. 10.
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