At long last, Nicki Minaj has returned with her new single "Super Freaky Girl." The Rick James-sampled track will likely serve as the lead single to the Young Money rapper's follow-up to 2018's Queen, which the Barbz have been waiting on with bated breath. Is the banger enough to push Nicki back to the top of the charts and give her her first solo No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100?
The Hot 100 chart takes into consideration the performances of songs through streaming services, radio stations and traditional sales, whether they be digital or physical (if available). The purpose of the chart is to rank the 100 most popular songs in the country at any given-week.
As described by Billboard on the chart's official page: "The week's most popular current songs across all genres, ranked by streaming activity from digital music sources tracked by Luminate, radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Luminate and sales data as compiled by Luminate."
Last week, Beyonce's "Break My Soul" topped the chart for the second consecutive week, outpacing Harry Styles' dominate "As It Was," which has been on the chart for an impressive 19 weeks.
Nicki dropped the Dr. Luke, Malibu Babie, Vaughn Oliver and Aaron Joseph-produced track on Aug. 12, after a single snippet of the single had been going viral for nearly a month. On the first day, she dropped the song on DSPs—eventually at a discounted price of $0.69—released an audio video on YouTube, as well as a lyric video.
On Thursday (Aug. 18), Nicki Minaj doubled up with the "Super Freaky Girl (Roman Remix)," releasing it on streaming services as well as putting out accompanying audio and lyric videos. She also released an a cappella version of the original, which apparently Nicki hasn't even heard.
"I refused to listen to it," she commented about the beat-less version on Twitter. "I don’t think I’ve ever dropped an a cappella… I knew if I listened I probably wouldn’t approve it."
Fans are still waiting on the track's actual official video, which Nicki also teased on Thursday on Instagram. The visual will feature Alexander Ludwig, who played Cato in The Hunger Games. There's also "Super Freaky Girl" merch.
The major push appears to be working. The song has reportedly already moved over 100,000 units as of Tuesday (Aug. 16). Both the original and the remix have held the No. 1 spot on Apple Music.
The first-week charting period for the debut of "Super Freaky Girl" ended at midnight last night (Aug. 18). Billboard will announce next week's Hot 100 chart on Monday (Aug. 22).
Nicki Minaj's previous No. 1 singles were as a feature artist on Doja Cat's "Say So" and 6ix9ine's "Trollz" in 2020. Her highest charting song as a solo artist is "Anaconda," which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2014.