Nicki Minaj spent the last week teasing that new music would arrive this week. On Friday (May 14), the New York native delivered her 2009 mixtape Beam Me Up Scotty to streaming services and added some new tracks to the project.
The 2021 version of Beam Me Up Scotty includes “Seeing Green” featuring Minaj’s longtime Young Money collaborators Drake and Lil Wayne. “Fractions” and a remix of Skillibeng’s “Crocodile Teeth” are part of the collection too.
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) May 14, 2021
Prior to the Beam Me Up Scotty teases on Twitter, the veteran rapper born Onika Tanya Maraj was relatively quiet on social media. It had also been a while since she released a song as a lead artist or as a featured artist.
In June 2020, Nicki Minaj teamed with controversial rapper 6ix9ine for “Trollz.” The collaboration opened at #1 on the Hot 100 chart before it suffered the biggest drop in history for a No. 1 debut, at that time, by falling to #34 in week two.
Later that year, Nicki Minaj appeared on Mike Will Made-It’s “What That Speed Bout!?” along with YoungBoy Never Broke Again. That song peaked at #35 and spent one week on the Hot 100 chart. 2020 also saw Minaj hit #1 on the Hot 100 for the first time as a guest on Doja Cat’s “Say So (Remix).”
“Seeing Green” and “Fractions” have both entered the Top 5 of the current iTunes all-genre songs chart which signifies they have a good chance of making it onto next week’s Hot 100. If any of the new Beam Me Up Scotty records do land on the Billboard tally, Minaj would increase her historic total of 114 career entries on that chart.
Beam Me Up Scotty was Nicki Minaj’s third official mixtape. It followed 2007’s Playtime Is Over and 2008’s Sucka Free. The 38-year-old emcee went on to release four studio albums. 2010’s Pink Friday is certified 3x-Platinum. 2012’s Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded and 2014’s The Pinkprint are certified 2x-Platinum. 2018’s Queen is certified Platinum.