Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé and Lizzo Just Made History
Music

Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé and Lizzo Just Made History

by Bailey Richards

One thing about Nicki Minaj? She’s the baddest alive — and she’s got the numbers to back it up. Over a quarter million TikTok videos have used her new single, "Super Freaky Girl," since she dropped its first TikTok teaser in July and the song just debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart.

The single isn’t the rapper’s first No. 1 — she previously occupied it with 6ix9ine for “Trollz” and Doja Cat for “Say So” — but it is her first Hot 100 No. 1 as an unaccompanied artist. Given that Rick James’ “Super Freak,” the song Minaj sampled for the track, was also a Hot 100 hit (it peaked at No. 16 following its 1981 release), it only seems fitting that “Super Freaky Girl” is the song to give Minaj her first solo No. 1.

“Super Freaky Girl” also marks a historic moment not only for Minaj but the entire music industry: for the first time, the Hot 100 No. 1 spot has been occupied by three different Black female musicians in a row. “Super Freaky Girl” followed Beyoncé’s “BREAK MY SOUL” and Lizzo’s “About Damn Time,” which, like Minaj’s single, was not only a chart-topper but also a viral TikTok hit.

Lizzo responded to the news, retweeting it with a heartfelt message:

According to Forbes, “Super Freaky Girl” is also the first No. 1 debut for a “hip-hop song by a solo female artist since Lauryn Hill’s 1998 song ‘Doo Wop (That Thing),’” a feat that Minaj celebrated with a retweet. The rapper will be ending her (very) successful week by receiving the Video Vanguard Award at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, which she is also co-emceeing with Jack Harlow and LL Cool J.

Photos via Getty