Nicki Minaj may have gotten some flack for the grandiose claims she made in a recent interview where, among other things, she detailed how she basically resurrected the female rapper in popular culture. However, one thing that cannot be denied is that she keeps putting her name on hit records, ultimately adding to her indefatigable legacy. Her latest addition to the trophy case? A Platinum plaque for her work on Yo Gotti's "Rake It Up."
The song has officially been certified by the RIAA for surpassing the sales plus streaming equivalent of 1,000,000, making it yet another milestone achieved in 2017 for Minaj and Memphis native Yo Gotti. The song has indeed raked up the plays, with hundreds of millions of streams being recorded across all streaming platforms. Perhaps the most impressive detail is the fact that there was no promotions from any radio personalities, major publications online or any like-minded media outlets. The success that it has attained is as organic as it gets, with the accolades pouring in alongside the plays in recent days. Nicki Minaj won Best Featured Verse at this year's BET Hip-Hop Awards for her work on the track.
Lately though, Minaj has been touting her accomplishments in other areas, namely her vitality to hip-hop culture and the music business in general. In the aforementioned interview that she completed with XXL, she doesn't think her role in shaping rap music as a milieu where women can succeed should go underestimated or underappreciated for that matter. "My role in hip-hop has been super unique because when my first album came out, there had been so much time where there wasn't a female rap album out that went platinum," she claimed. "There wasn't a big female rap presence right before I got in. So, my role was reintroducing the female rapper to pop culture."
As bold a statement as that may be, it's hard to argue that point with this kind of continued success and bankability. For what it is - a catchy, free-flowing piece of work from two industry veterans - "Rake It Up" should definitely be applauded for this impressive feat.
