Nicki Minaj recently sat down with Joe Budden for a 105-minute interview. At one point during the conversation, Minaj expressed her issues with how Billboard calculates points for its weekly charts.
Back in 2020, Billboard decided to “eliminate the practice of counting albums bundled with merchandise and concert tickets on its album and song charts altogether.” In an attempt to “level the playing field for all artists,” the publication no longer counts the sale of physical records or singles bundled with digital downloads.
The rule changes came just weeks after Nicki Minaj’s “Trollz” collaboration with Tekashi 6ix9ine debuted atop the Hot 100 chart. There was speculation that “Trollz” became the #1 song in America mostly due to fans of 6ix9ine and Minaj mass buying multiple merchandise bundle options.
That theory became more credible when “Trollz” fell 34 spots on the following week’s Hot 100, breaking the record for the biggest one-week drop in history for a song that opened in the #1 position. The 92% decline in sales for “Trollz” from week one to week two likely played a role in Billboard altering its Hot 100 formula to better reflect a song’s popularity with the general public.
“Billboard just changed the rules again about what’s gonna count and what’s not gonna count. To me, and I don’t know this, I’m not badmouthing anybody or anything, but to me it makes me feel like once they realized the fans or the artists have the power again, they do stuff to pull the ole switcharoo,” Nicki Minaj told Joe Budden.
The 39-year-old Young Money representative added, “When me and 6ix9ine went No. 1, they was mad as hell, child. A lot of people were mad. Right before I was about to drop this stuff, it’s new rules, new changes because certain people with a big fanbase, they were buying multiple copies and different versions.”
Other Nicki Minaj singles also suffered significant second-week dips on the Hot 100 chart similar to “Trollz.” 2019’s “Megatron” fell from #20 to #92. 2020’s “Yikes” fell from #23 to #81. 2021’s “Seeing Green” fell from #12 to #48. 2022’s “Do We Have A Problem?” fell from #2 to #32.
Nicki Minaj has two career Number Ones on the Hot 100. Besides “Trollz” with 6ix9ine, the Queens album creator also scored a chart-topper as a guest feature on Doja Cat’s “Say So” track. Plus, Minaj holds the record for most career Hot 100 entries for a female rapper (121 songs).