It’s been an up and down couple of days for Nicki Minaj. On Sunday (June 3), she backed out of her Hot 97 Summer Jam performance after a perceived slight from the station’s personality, Peter Rosenberg. Today (June 6), though, her album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, has gone gold.
The sophomore effort from the rap titan sold 15,300 units this week, bringing the two month total to 508,100. Those one-week numbers were good enough to help the album jump nearly 10 slots on the Billboard 200, as it landed at No. 13 this week, after coming in at No. 22 previously.
Only one other rap album appeared in the top 30 of the charts, as Atlanta trio Travis Porter’s debut offering, From Day 1, hit No. 16. The strip club-ready music moved 14,300 copies, and was the fourth highest debut on the charts overall. The single “Ayy Ladies,” featuring Tyga continues to rest comfortably on the singles charts, while the follow up, “Ride Like That,” featuring Jeremih, is steadily gaining momentum. B.o.B’s Strange Clouds (No. 34) and Drake’s Take Care (No. 43) were the only two other rap albums to reach the top 50.
A bit further down the charts, both Kanye West and Lauryn Hill reemerged. Yeezy’s Graduation, first released back in 2007, sold 3,300 copies this week—good for No. 144 overall—after moving under 1,000 discs last week. Similarly, Lauryn Hill’s seminal debut, 1998′s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, hit No. 180 this week, after selling 2,600 copies.
