Nicki Minaj Reacts To Her 12-Year-Old Mixtape Having One Of Hip-Hop's Biggest Sales Weeks In 2021

Nicki Minaj's re-release of her first mixtape "Beam Me Up Scotty" had one of the largest opening-week sales for hip-hop in 2021.

At a time, the only people who cared about first-week album sales were working in the music industry. In this current musical climate, though, it feels like everybody has an opinion about first-week sales, tallying up their favorite artist's numbers and using them to calculate how impactful the release was. Some critics have said that, because of the emphasis from fans on first-week sales, there has been a shift in the way that we listen to music, reducing replays after that all-important first week.

As the year comes to a close, a list has started to circulate showing hip-hop's biggest first weeks this year. As expected, Drake holds the top spot with 613,000 units moved in Week One with Certified Lover Boy.

Kanye West was the runner-up with 309,000 units sold for DONDA in the first week. Surprisingly enough, despite not releasing any new projects this year, Nicki Minaj could also be found toward the lower end of the list with her twelve-year-old mixtape, Beam Me Up Scotty, which was re-issued in 2021 with a handful of new records, including "Seeing Green" with Drake and Lil Wayne.