‘Trollz’ Makes Nicki Minaj The First Female Rapper To Debut At No. 1 This Century

Taking taking heat for working with a questionable collaborator in Tekashi 69, Nicki Minaj’s latest single “Trollz” added yet another historic accomplishment to her ever-growing resume. According to Pop Crave, Nicki has become the first female rapper this century to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 thanks to her colorful and controversial collaboration. This comes after Nicki racked up her first career No. 1 with another controversial collaborator in Doja Cat, whose “Say So” she remixed into an even bigger hit.

Nicki defended her choice of rhyme partners shortly after “Trollz” dropped, going on Instagram Live to point out how the rappers who derided Tekashi 69 for snitching have “snitches in your camp.” She made no note of fans’ parallels between Tekashi’s criminal record as a sex offender and those of two other men close to Nicki — her husband Kenneth Petty, who is registered as a sex offender for a decade-old rape conviction, and her brother Jelani, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for predatory sexual assault earlier this year.

Nicki’s previous No. 1 with Doja Cat was also the subject of some minor scandals as Billboard removed Nicki’s credit from the next week’s chart after “Say So” went No. 1. Billboard representative’s explained that the original version was responsible for the majority of the streams that week, so they couldn’t credit the remix for its continued reign. Doja became a target of fan scrutiny as well, after admitting her promise to “show my boobs so hard” if the song went No. 1 was just a joke and after she caught flak for her participation in chat rooms some deemed “racist.”

Nicki celebrated her second No. 1 — and her historic accomplishment — with posts on Instagram and Twitter, writing, “No words yet. All I can muster up is the ‘I love you.’ Gimme a sec.”

Check out Nicki’s responses above.