Nicki Minaj Hits Number 1 on US Album Charts

After three long months since it surfaced on the market, Nicki Minaj’s “Pink Friday” finally rules the Billboard 200, a rare feat according to some insiders, as not a lot of albums could manage to stay long in the charts, more so rise above all other releases, either you debut at the top or just take a back seat and see your record go up and down the charts.

Since its release back in November 2010 where it debuted at no.2, “Pink Friday” has already moved more than a million copies, and that includes the 45,000 copies it sold last week, clinching the top spot and also hitting the million copy mark.

Before Minaj’s rare Billboard feat, last year saw Lil Wayne’s “I Am Not a Human Being” also going through the same pattern – debuted at the second spot and rose to the top weeks after its release – except that for Wayne, it only took him about a couple of weeks to snag the top spot, thanks to his massive combined sales garnered from digital downloads and CD sales.

As for Minaj, experts say that it was her “Saturday Night Live” stint back in January 30, backed up by much love from Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez, whose separate videos of themselves rapping to the album’s “Super Bass” cut garnered more than 2 million views each, helped propel the album to no.1, bumping “Mission Bell” from Amos Lee out of the top spot, with the former chart topper sliding 25 notches down to no.26.

Ray Charles’ “Genius Loves Company” (2005) still holds the distinction of being the longest staying record in the Billboard 200 to have gotten to the top, with a record of 25 weeks before dominating the charts, an achievement largely fueled by its success at the 2005 Grammy Awards.

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