Nicki Minaj becomes second most charted female in the US

Nicki Minaj has overtaken Taylor Swift this week to become the female act with the second most number of hits in the United States.

The #65 entry of her newest single Black Barbies, is Minaj’s 70th track to land in the Billboard Hot 100 since the rock era began in 1955.

It moves her ahead of Swift’s 69. But the Trinidadian-born Queens, NYC-raised singer still trails behind the undisputed queen of soul, Aretha Franklin, who has 73 entries.

Franklin’s first chart appearance was in 1960 when Won’t Be Long peaked at #76. Minaj’s debut, as part of Young Money’s BedRock, was in 2009.

Billboard notes that Minaj was the lead artist on 27 of her Top 100 entries, or 39%. Franklin was the featured singer on all her chart appearances.

It is expected that Swift will make her 70th appearance next week with the surprise release of I Don’t Wanna Live Forever, which she cut with Zayn for the upcoming Fifty Shades Darker movie. It is her first new music since her 1989 album, and getting strong airplay.

Regardless of how long Minaj maintains second spot, she has well surpassed other female superstars. Madonna and Rihanna tie at fourth place after each notching up 57 entries, while Dionne Warwick is on sixth spot with 58.

Beyoncé is at #7 with 53 hits, level with Connie Francis, then Brenda Lee (48), Mariah Carey with 47, Miley Cyrus with 43, and Barbra Streisand (41). Mary J. Blige, Janet Jackson and Diana Ross each have 40.

Black Barbies, featuring Gucci Mane, is a reworking of Rae Sremmurd’s #1 hit track Black Beatles. It was released commercially on November 30 after first making its appearance on SoundCloud.

Among all acts, the cast of Glee leads with 207 Hot 100 entries, followed by Lil Wayne (132) and Drake (131). Franklin is in 10th place while Minaj comes in at 12th.

Minaj’s achievement this week comes at a time when her new mobile game Nicki Minaj: The Empire has garnered strong reviews, and her 34th birthday party on a $34 million estate on the tropical Turks & Caicos Islands lasted for a full expensive week.

Amidst all these are rumours fuelled by her caption on an Instagram posting that her relationship with Meek Mill is over, he made a brief appearance at the celebrations.

Nicki Minaj: The Empire was developed by Glu-Mobile, the same company which created Kim Kardashian: Hollywood.

It’ll be interesting to see if Minaj’s game can match Kardashian’s sales. Launched in 2014, by February it had already grossed an impressive $100 million, with the app downloaded

42 million times and users logging around 3.3 billion sessions in total.

The Empire allows players to develop their game character, and build up a rap empire while learning some cool rapping skills. They can “perform” on stage with Minaj and her dancers, chat with each other, write a record and share their raps in the hope that it may reach the singer’s ears.

While hunting down Minaj after a tip-off, she’s hanging out near a subway station in Queens, the user is thwarted by their nasty enemy Bitta Sweet who challenges him/her to a rap battle. Minaj is impressed enough with the winner to help make the user a star.