According to Billboard Nicki Minaj’s “Queen” album came in at Number 2 with 200K pure sales, after Travis Scott’s “Astroworld” pulled in another 205k in its second week to maintain its number 1 spot.
While it’s impressive for an artist to put up the type of numbers Minaj did nearly 10 years into her career, in a series of tweets the Queens-native explained her thoughts on the tactics that played into her first week numbers.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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“I put my blood sweat & tears in writing a dope album only for Travis Scott to have Kylie Jenner post a tour pass telling ppl to come see her & Stormi. lol. I’m actually laughing. #Queen broke the record of being number 1 in 86 countries. Thank Jesus & thank you to my fans,” Minaj tweeted.
For clarification, Minaj is referring to an Instagram post in which Kylie Jenner told fans to purchase Scott’s tour tickets to see herself and Stormi. Scott’s tour bundles include copies of his album, which is boosting the album’s sales.
Minaj went on to discuss how Spotify also allegedly played a role in “blackballing” her. According to Minaj, Spotify told her they had to “teach her a lesson” for playing her music on Apple Radio.
“Spotify had to teach me a lesson but rewarded the man who has had an Apple radio show the longest; inadvertently helping the Apple platform the most. Oh, I can’t wait for #QueenRadio on Tuesday. They took away my promotion they had promised for the 1st cpl days b/c of this.”
As an example, Minaj threw in the fact that Drake has debuted music on Apple Radio but was still supported by Spotify.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
“Spotify put Drake’s face on every playlist but told me they’d have to teach me a lesson for playing my music 10 mins early on #QueenRadio. Even tho they’ve been giving away my music for free for years & I am one of the top Spotify artists of all time.”
Minaj went on to say that her label, Universal, didn’t want to defend her because they feared her label mate Ariana Grande would suffer the same fate.
Minaj added that she wasn’t actually upset and was using dry humor after receiving phone calls regarding her tweets. The rapper says she plans to address all details this week on Apple show Queen Radio.
