NICKI MINAJ GOES GOLD WITH 'PINK FRIDAY'

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Throughout the year, one of the biggest question marks was Nicki Minaj's 'Pink Friday.' Her debut album had tons of buzz, but many questioned how a hip-hop record by a female would sell in this day and age. Would Nicki be able to steer her own ship to the big numbers demanded by record executives and expected by fans? Well, the answer is a resounding "yes" as 'Pink Friday' has gone gold and even outsold Kanye West's monstrous 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' over the past week. 

'Pink Friday,' which was officially released three weeks ago, pushed past 500,000 units by moving an additional 81,900 in the past week. With these steady sales numbers, the collection held down the No. 6 spot on the Billboard Top 200 and beat Kanye's weekly numbers by approximately 16,000 copies.

Minaj hasn't been shy about the fact that her record outsold all female hip-hop artists other than Lauryn Hill in its first week, but sustained sales are what go beyond the hype and show if the public is truly connecting to the music beyond the usual first-week marketing. 

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Minaj talked about future expectations for herself. "There's some songs I just won't write because I'm afraid of it not meeting my expectation of what I know that song could be," she said. "I don't compete with other people, I compete with myself."

With one of the only gold hip-hop albums of the year, Minaj has set the competition bar pretty high.