This week, Nicki Minaj and Tyga’s collaborative new single “Dip” debuts at No. 83 on the Hot 100 (according to Billboard), and while that’s not necessarily an especially impressive position for either artist (though it’s just the beginning for the recently-released single), the song is special for Minaj, who has just made history in a very important way.
With one more placement on the Hot 100 to her credit, Minaj has just become the first woman in history to rack up 100 appearances on the most important singles chart in the U.S.
Incredibly, Minaj has scored all 100 of her charting singles in less than a decade, as she first appeared on the listing that measures the most popular 100 songs in the U.S. every week in 2010.
While she has collected many charting hits of her own, the majority of Minaj’s Hot 100 appearances have come thanks to featured spots on tracks fronted by other artists. Many successful acts have upped their Hot 100 counts significantly by contributing verses to songs pushed by a variety of musicians, and the strategy not only led Minaj to this historic moment, it also helped turn her into the star she is today.
Minaj has sent 100 different songs onto the Hot 100, and 17 of those have broken into the top 10, but somehow, she has never landed at No. 1, either as a featured act or as the lead musician. A chart-topper will probably come to her at some point, though it is strange that it hasn’t yet, as almost all the artists who have reached this milestone have at least a handful of No. 1s in their discographies.
While the massively successful rapper is the first woman to place 100 titles on the Hot 100, she is the fifth musician overall. Leading the way is the cast of the now-defunct TV show Glee, which remains the only act (group or solo) to chart more than 200 songs on the Hot 100, as they collectively scored 207 appearances in their time together.
Fellow hip-hop artists (and labelmates) Drake and Lil Wayne come next, with 191 and 160 Hot 100 hits to their credit, respectively. Rock and roll icon Elvis Presley is in fourth place with 108 chart appearances. At the rate she’s been scoring hits and placing tunes onto the all-encompassing ranking (if only for a week or two), Minaj will likely pass Presley in the coming year, at which point she’ll move into fourth place...unless someone else passes her before then.
