Best Pop Singers of 21st Century (No. 13)

With the primary quarter of the twenty first century coming to a detailed, Billboard is spending the following few months counting down our workers picks for the 25 biggest pop stars of the final 25 years. We’ve already named our Honorable Mentions and our No. 25, No. 24, No. 23, No. 22, No. 21, No. 20, No. 19, No. 18, No. 17, No. 16, No. 15 and No. 14 stars, and now we keep in mind the century in Nicki Minaj — a one-of-a-kind crossover rapper who paved a celebrity lane completely her personal within the 2010s.

Whether or not you realize, love or tolerate her as Harajuku Barbie, Roman Zolanski, Chun-Li, Queen Sleeze or Martha (could she relaxation in peace) — few figures in twenty first century widespread music and tradition (or hip-hop historical past typically) can examine to the towering impression and immense expertise of Nicki Minaj. 

Although she got here to passionately rep Southside Jamaica, Queens (and it’s loopy!) after transferring there on the age of 5, the artist born Onika Tanya Maraj was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago in 1982. The eldest daughter of 4 youngsters, Minaj’s birthplace and stomping grounds instantly situate her on the origins of hip-hop, the endlessly influential artform that sprung out of Seventies New York due to town’s wealthy mixture of African-American, Afro-Caribbean and Latin American cultures. And simply as a lot of hip-hop has grappled (and continues to grapple) with the American dream and its dueling luster and infeasibility, so has Minaj all through her profession — each inside and out of doors of her music.  

Paradoxically, these two truths align Minaj with conventional markers of hip-hop authenticity: a label {that a} important chunk of the world has perceived her as at odds with for many of her profession due to the communities – the ladies and the gays – she has elected to cater to inside hip-hop areas. Minaj is arguably the only most fascinating MC of her technology; the mix of her razor-sharp wit, simple tenacity, irresistible penchant for the provocative and controversial, and, for higher and for worse, her timeless charisma have resulted in one of the crucial singular pop star careers of the twenty first century. 

Shortly after honing her appearing abilities by the use of the storied Fiorello H. LaGuardia Excessive Faculty of Music & Artwork and Performing Arts and a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Off-Broadway stint, Minaj briefly signed with Brooklyn R&B/hip-hop collective Full Pressure, by way of which she rapped as part of The Hoodstars, a quartet that included her future beau-turned-hypeman-turned-critic, Safaree Samuels. She left the group after 5 songs – together with WWE Diva Victoria’s 2004 entrance track, “Don’t Mess With” — taking to MySpace to start fine-tuning her method to social media and the Web as an artist and get her music to ears of key trade gamers. A type of gamers was Soiled Cash Leisure CEO Massive Fendi, who signed Minaj to the Brooklyn-based label in 2007, Minaj was signed to a 180-day contract and Fendi fatefully modified her stage title from Nicki Maraj to Nicki Minaj. 

On July 5, 2007, Minaj unleashed her debut mixtape, the blistering Playtime Is Over. Playtime arrived three years earlier than Minaj customary herself right into a life-sized Barbie doll for the Pink Friday album cowl, however she was already laying the groundwork for the imagery that will come to anchor her total profession. Minaj’s debut mixtape accompanied her look on Soiled Cash’s The Come Up avenue DVD collection, wherein her swaggering rendition of shit-popping tracks like “40 Bars” caught the eye of Lil Wayne, who later signed her to his Younger Cash Leisure imprint.  

When Nicki conquered each the Web and real-life hip-hop conversations together with her 2007-09 mixtape run, the technology of feminine MCs earlier than have been successfully silent. For varied causes Lauryn Hill, Lil Kim, Da Brat, Eve, Cunning Brown, Missy Elliott, Amil, Remy Ma, Gangsta Boo and MC Lyte all hadn’t dropped solo studio albums since at the very least the primary half of the ‘00s. Trina and Lil Mama made some chart impression, however in any other case, the latter half of the ‘00s and starting of the ‘10s have been largely bereft of feminine rappers working within the style’s mainstream as soloists in their very own proper. And right here got here Nicki Minaj pulling playing cards on her very first challenge: “How the f–ok you within the sport like ten years robust?/ You b–ches nonetheless can’t write ya personal rattling songs.” 

Two extra mixtapes adopted – 2008’s Sucka Free (by way of Soiled Cash/Younger Cash) and 2009’s Beam Me Up Scotty (by way of Younger Cash/Aphilliates) — nevertheless it was the latter that actually introduced Minaj to the following degree of her profession. Scotty housed a number of of her most beloved tracks, together with “Itty Bitty Piggy” and “I Get Loopy,” the latter of which marked her Billboard chart debut. The vitality surrounding Minaj and Scotty was remarkably palpable; whether or not you have been an NYC child rapping her lyrics throughout lunch interval or a blog-era disciple amassing her mixtapes on-line, all eyes have been on Nicki Minaj. Via her, a brand new path ahead for rap appeared attainable for feminine artists – and he or she made it so. 

In 2009, Portia Kirkland, then-VP of promoting at Mizay Leisure (Minaj’s administration firm on the time) advised Billboard, “We’re establishing her on-line first. Nicki at all times stays in contact together with her followers by way of Twitter, MySpace and running a blog. We didn’t place her as music however as a way of life.” It’s that method to fan engagement, coupled together with her simple expertise, which have allowed Nicki and her Barbz to develop into one of the crucial passionate (if sometimes terrifying) artist-fan dynamics in music. With out that basis, Nicki’s success throughout genres can be virtually unimaginable, however, in the end, that relationship is paramount to her (considerably self-mythologized) place as a marquee pop star and normal thought chief. 

A number of months after Scotty’s launch, Minaj formally turned the First Woman of Younger Cash, signing a formidable take care of Lil Wayne’s imprint and Common Motown. The Pink Friday marketing campaign would begin the next 12 months, however not earlier than she earned the primary two of her record-breaking profession 148 Billboard Sizzling 100 entries up to now due to her appearances on Wayne’s “Knockout” and Mariah Carey’s “Up Out My Face.” The Pink Friday period began out a bit shaky, with the Sean Garrett-assisted “Huge Assault,” however paltry business returns brought about that official lead single spot to go to the Annie Lennox-sampling “Your Love,” which reached No. 14 on the Sizzling 100. 

Earlier than Pink Friday arrived in its entirety on Nov. 22, 2010, Minaj constructed up her notoriety by way of a collection of knockout visitor verses – Trey Songz’s “Bottoms Up,” Usher’s “Lil Freak,” Sean Kingston’s “Letting Go” and a Grammy-nominated activate Ludacris’ “My Chick Unhealthy” — that established her because the go-to artist to inject a singular combination of camp and intercourse enchantment on just about any track. Her verses have been unabashedly animated and wholly electrifying; accent switches, a rotating forged of alter egos and slick wordplay proved to be hallmarks of a Nicki Minaj verse – and everybody wished to show they may rap a Nicki verse from reminiscence. All through her profession, Minaj’s brilliance has most persistently shined on her visitor verses; one thing a few restricted quantity of house and time routinely makes her shift into the next gear.  

This pivotal function run culminated in her culture-quaking verse on Kanye West’s “Monster,” her first really iconic pop second: From the second she commenced her verse, Nicki’s voice carried an simple gravity. Her fearless verse was full of tongue-in-cheek ménage à trois requests and blood-curdling screams, however “$50k for a verse, no album out” was the type of room-silencing flex that Minaj would proceed to again up and construct upon for years to come back. The “Monster” verse cemented her as not simply the following large factor, but in addition one of the crucial gifted working MCs. 

Pink Friday finally debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 375,000 copies bought in its first week, coming in behind West’s My Stunning Darkish Twisted Fantasy, which housed “Monster.” The album later reached the pole place, assisted by a shocking run of singles that included the Sizzling 100 hits: “Proper Through Me” (No. 26), “Second for Life” (No. 13, with Drake), “Fly” (No. 19, with Rihanna), “Did It On ‘Em” (No. 49). Reaping a trio of Grammy nods – together with greatest rap album and greatest new artist – Pink Friday unequivocally stands as a landmark album for 2010s hip-hop. That includes a shiny mix of rap, pop, dance and R&B, Pink Friday marked a notable departure from the rap-focused trio of mixtapes it succeeded, which naturally courted an argument that also plagues Minaj’s releases to today. On her debut, Minaj rapped ferociously and sang earnestly – generally in the identical track – a mix of abilities that, coupled with the sparkly beats of Drew Cash, Swizz Beatz, and Pop & Oak, confounded those that encountered her on a vibe nearer to The Come Up DVD. 

What stays so placing about Pink Friday is that it concurrently appears like an album made distinctly for Nicki Minaj and album deliberately made for a technology of feminine rappers that hadn’t but arrived. “I felt like I had one thing to show to everybody who stated a feminine rapper couldn’t make an album except she was speaking about her p—y,” she advised  Vibe in 2012. “So, I went above and past to show that I couldn’t discuss intercourse and never discuss my genitalia and nonetheless have a profitable album. And I proved that.”  Curiously, as a lot as Pink Friday discovered Minaj searching for her future friends (“’Trigger earlier than they may start, you advised ’em it was the top/ However I’m right here to reverse the curse that they reside in”), the album additionally discovered her twisting the knife within the chest of certainly one of her foremothers, Lil Kim, responding to the Brooklyn rapper’s accusations that she copied her fashion and picture on the fiery Eminem team-up “Roman’s Revenge.” 

Nicki’s earlier pop crossover makes an attempt had reaped comparatively middling returns, however “Tremendous Bass” — initially positioned as a Pink Friday deluxe monitor, earlier than receiving an official single launch in 2011 — despatched her into the stratosphere. Because of its relentlessly sticky hook and an impromptu cowl of the track by Taylor Swift throughout an interview with a Nashville radio station, “Bass” finally peaked at No. 3 on the Sizzling 100 and earned a Diamond certification from the RIAA. Not solely did the track assist Minaj crash by way of Prime 40’s entrance doorways, it’s additionally nonetheless thought of to be one of many biggest pop songs of all time, coming in at No. 13 on Billboard’s listing of the five hundred Greatest Pop Songs. From the candy-coated music video and her trademark pink wig to her cheeky choreography and suggestive bars, “Tremendous Bass” was the final word end result of Nicki Minaj as a bonafide pop star and topline rapper, a balancing act she would proceed for the following ten years. 

“Y’all hate enjoyable,” is a phrase usually thrown round in on-line areas to laud works that individuals could get pleasure from no matter their high quality. With Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, her sophomore studio album, Minaj wasn’t utilizing “enjoyable” as a cop-out, she genuinely simply wished to get pleasure from herself after executing a seismic hip-hop second amid her transition to pop music’s higher echelon. In 2012, she advised Ryan Seacrest throughout a call-in interview, “I’ve by no means had this a lot enjoyable recording music in my life. My first album I used to be very guarded. I felt like I used to be making music to please everybody else. I needed to be politically right, however this album I’m simply creating music, and there’s such an enormous distinction.”  

In that freedom, Minaj sourced her Pink Friday follow-up: a double album that balanced her hip-hop aspect together with her need to delve deeper into EDM and dance-pop. She traded her Harajuku Barbie aesthetic for neon paint and bikinis galore as she pushed hip-hop additional to the place the zeitgeist was on the time, nimbly flowing over blaring synth breakdowns and delivering delectable pop hooks as well. Lead single “Starships” reached No. 5 on the Sizzling 100, bridging rap and Europop to set the stage for later singles akin to “Pound the Alarm” (No. 15) and the deluxe version’s “Va Va Voom” (No. 22). Minaj’s dance-pop pivot was a essential second in her profession.  

Regardless of what she and Pink Friday did for hip-hop simply months prior, her choice to experiment together with her sound and additional flaunt her versatility was met with haughty dismissal and harsh disrespect by some followers, friends and trade gamers. Infamously, Sizzling 97 radio host Peter Rosenberg lambasted “Starships” as “not actual hip-hop,” on the station’s annual Summer season Jam live performance on the day she was scheduled to carry out at MetLife Stadium, spurring Minaj to cancel her headlining look. Maybe, Minaj’s experimentation proved too radical for hip-hop – the Barbie aesthetic was one factor, however what have been gatekeepers presupposed to do with RedOne productions that sounded nearer to Calvin Harris than the ricocheting snares of Mike Will Made-It?  

As hurtful because the backlash was, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded turned Minaj’s first album to debut at No. 1, promoting 253,000 copies in its first week. In the meantime, Minaj collaborated with some pop music’s largest names – Alicia Keys (“Woman on Hearth”), Justin Bieber (“Magnificence and a Beat”) and Madonna (“Give Me All Your Luvin’”) — which helped hold her a constant presence throughout radio codecs as discourse round her personal music continued to swirl. That Madonna collaboration introduced Minaj all the way in which to the 2012 Tremendous Bowl halftime present, which aired only one week earlier than essentially the most controversial efficiency of Minaj’s profession up to now: On the 2012 Grammys, Minaj carried out “Roman Vacation” in a set that discovered her Roman Zolanski alter-ego overcoming an exorcism try. The efficiency drew the ire of The Catholic League, and years later, Minaj alleged that former Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich blackballed her from ever successful an award on the present due to the efficiency’s bitter reception and her refusal to tug out from the present, following his last-minute request to take action in mild of Whitney Houston’s passing. (After 12 profession nominations, Minaj nonetheless has but to take house a Grammy.)

Two different songs from Roman Reloaded additionally helped cement Minaj as an A-list pop star throughout this period: “Silly Hoe” and “Excessive Faculty” (with Lil Wayne). The previous as soon as once more discovered Minaj hurling jabs at Lil Kim, and its colourful music video broke the Vevo document at time with 4.8 million views in its first 24 hours of launch. “Excessive Faculty,” which stays certainly one of Minaj’s most beloved tracks, discovered her its music video to introduce Myx Moscato, a product in a Minaj co-owned line of alcoholic drinks that she would usually reference in her verses for years to come back, marking her transition from scorching new star to budding mogul. On this period, Minaj additionally reunited with Carey as the 2 served on the judging panel for a very tense season of American Idol and returned to appearing with a voice function in Ice Age: Continental Drift, the highest-grossing animated movie of 2012. 

Like several good pop star, when Minaj’s again acquired shoved towards the wall, she went again to fundamentals. She kicked off 2014 with what was arguably her most fondly appeared upon assortment of remixes and visitor verses: “Lookin Ass,” YG’s “My N—a,” “Danny Glover” (with Younger Thug), “Chi-Raq” (with G-Herbo), “No Flex Zone” (with Rae Sremmurd),” and Younger Cash’s “Senile,” amongst others. These new tracks ushered Minaj into her most dramatic change in style and aesthetic but: For the purple carpets celebrating the discharge of Nick Cassavetes’ rom-com The Different Lady, her live-action function movie debut, Minaj hung up the heavy make-up and zany coloured wigs of her previous two eras and as an alternative opted for a strikingly pure look. Her extremely lauded new seems to be set the stage for The Pinkprint, her remarkably private third studio album. 

Led by the somber, revelatory “Tablets N Potions,” The Pinkprint marked a second of great maturation for Minaj. She spent the document working by way of household trauma (“All Issues Go”) and detailing essentially the most harrowing elements of failed relationships (“I Lied”; “The Crying Recreation”), whereas additionally discovering time to rep her heritage (“Trini Dem Women,” “4 Door Aventador”). The sprawling set reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200, shifting 244,000 album models in its first week, whereas additionally spawning further prime 40 hits just like the Drake/Wayne link-ups “Solely” (No. 12, with Chris Brown) and “Truffle Butter” (No. 14), and “The Evening Is Nonetheless Younger” (No. 31) — certainly one of her few post-Roman Reloaded solo dance-pop tracks. 

However the largest hit from the album was simply “Anaconda” — which, between its iconic music video, cowl artwork and outro, stays one of the crucial remembered tracks of each The Pinkprint and Minaj’s profession typically. Her flip of Sir Combine-a-Lot’s “Child Acquired Again” compelled open a Pandora’s field of discourse relating to physique politics, Black feminism, and white girls and victimhood because it pertains to Taylor Swift centering herself in Minaj’s questioning of why her wildly profitable music video was handed over for prime honors on the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards. After all, Swift was instrumental in serving to “Tremendous Bass” cross over to pop audiences again in 2010, so the duo’s kerfuffle was nothing {that a} joint efficiency opening that 12 months’s VMAs couldn’t repair. 2014 additionally discovered Minaj becoming a member of forces with Beyoncé and Ariana Grande — the 2 hottest non-Swift pop stars of the 12 months – each as company on her personal album, then as co-stars on the previous’s world-stopping “Flawless” remix and the latter’s “Bang Bang” (together with Jessie J).  

Between dominating the summer time with “Anaconda” and “Bang Bang” and shutting out the 12 months with The Pinkprint, 2014 was a successful 12 months for Minaj. That success continued into the next 12 months with the discharge of Barbershop: The Subsequent Lower, one other live-action movie that helped insert Minaj into each the legacy of the beloved movie collection and the lineage of rappers-turned-actors like her co-stars Eve, Ice Dice and Widespread. Though The Pinkprint misplaced all 4 of its Grammy nods, the album did wonders for individuals who have been nonetheless looking for a stable, genuine album from Minaj – and it even previewed the place she was headed in her love life (peep these two Meek Mill collabs). 

After The Pinkprint, one thing shifted. With three profitable albums and two correct world excursions below her belt, Minaj was now not a bright-eyed new star. She was now lounging on the throne in the home she constructed, however there have been fairly just a few new and veteran feminine rappers seeking to get some pores and skin within the sport. Minaj’s worst trials would are available 2017. After kicking off the 12 months asserting her cut up from Meek Mill – who she later accused of bodily violence towards girls, together with herself, in 2020 – Minaj obtained somewhat reward by the title of “Shether.”  

Named in reference to “Ether,” Nas’ legendary 2001 diss monitor, “Shether” was a scathing seven-minute diss in direction of Nicki Minaj from Bronx rapper Remy Ma. The pair’s beef dates again to 2010, however “Shether” rapidly transcended their particular shared historical past. Via “Shether,” anybody who didn’t like Minaj – or was simply plain uninterested in her dominance – was granted each an avenue to train that hate and a rival artist to help regardless of her. The well-received “Shether” was the primary diss monitor to actually put a dent in Minaj’s armor: Though she did reply by way of “No Frauds,” Nicki survived the lashings principally by persevering with to churn out hits.  

However not even a pressure of nature may thwart the clearly altering tides of the trade: “Shether” dropped simply three and a half months earlier than Cardi B’s Sizzling 100-topping “Bodak Yellow.” With Cardi’s rise quickly giving strategy to a brand new class of rising feminine emcees and Remy’s diss nonetheless permeating the broader tradition and portray Minaj as a fraud and laughingstock, the Head Barb discovered herself in a wildly completely different place from the lane she had cultivated for the previous decade. 2017 additionally marked the primary time after a seven-year run that Minaj didn’t win greatest feminine hip-hop artist on the BET Awards (Remy gained). The inspiration of Minaj’s world had shifted considerably. 

She kicked off 2018 with one other breakup – this time with fellow Queens icon Nas – and rapidly turned her consideration to rolling out Queen, her fourth studio album. Lead single “Chun-Li” (No. 10) turned her first solo Sizzling 100 prime 10 hit since “Anaconda” and previewed an album that will inject Minaj’s hip-hop basis with notes of lure, pop, R&B and dancehall. Though she put out twin lead singles and a handful of pre-release tracks, Queen felt like the primary Nicki Minaj period the place all the pieces however the music was on the focal point. She launched Queen Radio on Apple Music to coincide with the album drop, however the stop-start nature of the discharge gave strategy to attention-grabbing rants that will rapidly develop into a defining attribute of the radio present – and Minaj’s normal late ‘10s and early ‘20s on-line presence. 

Queen opened at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, falling behind the second week of Travis Scott’s Astroworld. Naturally, an album that bears an honorific as its title lacking the highest spot and incomes a smaller debut than Cardi B’s Invasion of Privateness (2018) was removed from best – and Minaj spent the next weeks casting blame on everybody from her document label to Billboard, streaming providers, Travis Scott, Irving Azoff and even Stormi Webster. It additionally didn’t assist that – exterior of “Chun-Li” — Queen didn’t generate any actual hits of its personal. The truth is, the most important hit of this Nicki period is technically “FEFE,” a Murda Beatz-produced collaboration with embattled rapper 6ix9ine that peaked at No. 3 on the Sizzling 100 and was tacked onto the album’s deluxe version. Couple that with Future dropping out of his deliberate co-headlining tour with Nicki – he was later changed by Juice WRLD — and the Queen period was simply Nicki’s messiest but. Did we point out that Style Week altercation with Cardi? 

It will take one other half-decade for Minaj’s subsequent studio album to reach, and within the interim she rode out essentially the most confounding interval of her profession but. 2019 introduced her large information like “Tusa” (with Karol G) and good remixes like “Welcome to the Get together” (with Pop Smoke), however her link-up with Megan Thee Stallion on that 12 months’s “Sizzling Woman Summer season” proved to have a fairly mind-boggling snowball impact. Identical to “MotorSport,” her 2017 collaboration with Cardi B and Migos, “Summer season” was the newest instance of a Minaj collaboration with a youthful feminine rapper ending with the 2 at odds.  

Whereas Bardi and Minaj have nonetheless but to spar on document, the occasions of the “Sizzling Woman Summer season” music video shoot – Minaj alleges that Thee Stallion tried to pressure her to drink whereas she was attempting to get pregnant  — later gave strategy to 2024’s “Massive Foot,” a poorly obtained response to Megan’s Sizzling 100-topping “Hiss.” In “Hiss,” Megan rapped, “These hoes don’t be mad at Megan, these hoes mad at Megan’s Regulation,” a bar many perceived to be a shot at Minaj, whose husband, Kenneth Petty, is a registered intercourse offender. Although it was a normal shot that may very well be directed to numerous Thee Stallion’s adversaries, most minds went to Nicki due to her historical past of aligning herself with alleged abusers and predators – one of many darkest and most troubling throughlines of her profession. 

Although 2020 may need been the primary 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, for Nicki, it primarily marked a return to business triumph. She earned her first two Sizzling 100 chart-toppers: “Say So” (with Doja Cat), the primary collaboration between two feminine rappers to prime the chart, and “Trollz” (with 6ix9ine). In 2021, she re-released Beam Me Up Scotty to streaming providers, incomes a No. 2 Billboard 200 peak for the decade-old mixtape within the course of. 

By the point 2022 rolled round, Minaj appeared to swing the pendulum again in her favor, incomes her first unaccompanied Sizzling 100 No. 1 with the Rick James-sampling “Tremendous Freaky Woman.” The viral monitor repurposed the “Anaconda” method and gifted Minaj her largest crossover hit in years, which then gave strategy to her incomes the Video Vanguard and greatest hip-hop awards at a victory-lapping 2022 VMAs. “Tremendous Freaky Woman” was additionally the middle of one other brouhaha between Minaj and a youthful feminine MC: This time, she sounded off about “Tremendous” being positioned within the pop discipline as an alternative of the rap discipline on the 2023 Grammys. On Instagram Stay – which she regularly makes use of together with Stationhead to corral her fan military and communicate her thoughts – Minaj argued that each her track and Latto’s “Massive Power” ought to compete within the pop discipline as a result of they’ve the identical producer (Dr. Luke, one other Minaj collaborator with troubling sexual assault allegations – he countersued and the 2 later settled out of courtroom). 

“Tremendous Freaky Woman” would go on to function the de facto lead single for Pink Friday 2, however not earlier than Minaj started 2023 with a remix of Ice Spice’s “Princess Diana,” which served as the primary launch on Heavy On It Information, an imprint she launched by way of a enterprise with Republic Information that 12 months, and reached No. 4 on the Sizzling 100. She and Ice would later reunite on the No. 7-peaking “Barbie World” (with AQUA) — the two-time Grammy-nominated monitor from Barbie the Album – earlier than their relationship turned icy. On December 8, 2023, Minaj launched Pink Friday 2, an official sequel to her 2010 debut that mixed hip-hop with Afrobeats, Jersey membership, dancehall and pop. The LP turned her record-breaking third No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, incomes over 228,000 album equal models in its first week. Over half of the album charted on the Sizzling 100, together with the singles “Crimson Ruby Da Sleeze” (No. 13), “Final Time I Noticed You” (No. 23), “Everyone” (No. 24, with Lil Uzi Vert) and “FTCU” (No. 15). Obtained warmly by critics and followers alike, Pink Friday 2 mined nostalgia to good-looking returns, culminating within the highest-grossing live performance tour by a feminine rapper of all time with the Pink Friday 2 World Tour.

For Minaj, 2024 has been marked by the continuation of her Pink Friday 2 trek and the creation of the forthcoming subsequent installment in her Pink Friday album collection. With a profession that spans 20 years throughout the hip-hop underground and pop’s apex alike, Nicki Minaj has been the final word victor, villain and survivor of twenty first century pop music and tradition – generally all on the identical time. Her allegiance to alleged predators and abusers, embrace of problematic conspiracy theories and weaponization of her and her followers’ parasocial relationships are all truths which can be unerasable from Minaj’s legacy. A provocateur within the truest sense, Minaj is aware of what buttons to press and he or she’s at all times able to Hulk smash them – she’s fearless in that approach. However it’s her seeming worry of being changed and forged apart that retains her demanding the highlight like all nice pop star; watching her grapple with that battle is a priceless front-row seat to the madhouse that’s twenty first century fame. 

Nicki Minaj isn’t simply the best feminine rapper to ever do it and one of many biggest pop stars of this century, she’s additionally one of many key architects of how pop music sounds, how pop fandom features and the way pop stars are perceived each on-line and in actual life in 2024. Now that’s some single-handed annihilation, phrase to “Itty Bitty Piggy.” 

Learn extra in regards to the Biggest Pop Stars of the twenty first Century right here — and be sure you verify again on Thursday when our No. 12 artist is revealed!