It’s been three years since Nicki Minaj liberated her last album Queen, a now-Platinum offering that saw 19 tracks and contributions from Eminem, Lil Wayne, Ariana Grande, The Weeknd, Swae Lee, Future, and Foxy Brown. Since then, she’s largely contributed to top quality drops from her peers, including Mike WiLL Made-It’s “What That Speed Bout!?,” Ty Dolls $ign’s “Expensive,” A$AP Ferg’s “Move Ya Hips,” and Doja Cat’s chart-topper “Say So (Remix).” The Young Money alum did deliver a loose cut here and there — most recently, last year saw “Yikes,” an aggressive offering partially aimed at Minaj’s ex-boyfriend Meek Mill.
Earlier this week, the mother to a beautiful baby son made a big return to social media, and — thanks to her outfit or lack thereof — single-handedly crashed the website for footwear brand Crocs. Then, she followed that with a video of her and husband Kenneth Petty driving around in a Rolls Royce Cullinan while a mysterious song played through the speakers, increasing hype for new music from the New York emcee. Fast-forward to today, and the world gets a re-release of her classic mixtape Beam Me Up Scotty. The updated version sees new singles like “Seeing Green,” which features Drake and Lil Wayne, and “Fractions,” a hard-hitting number that immediately proves that she still hasn’t removed her high heel off of hip hop’s proverbial neck:
“Bitches act like they want action Heard they want action Bitch, we ain’t duckin’ no action I’m ‘bout to give them that traction, send a distraction Then I’ma line ‘em like fractions…”
In regards to music and entertainment overall, Minaj’s achievements are thousandfold. To date, she’s sold over 137 million records worldwide, and has nineteen top 10 singles on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart (the most for any female rapper), which four of those being solo releases. Add in a warehouse-sized amount of Gold and Platinum plaques, and you have a hall of fame veteran that’s nowhere finished with her action-packed career.
Press play on Nicki Minaj’s Beam Me Up Scotty project below.