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Nicki MInaj’s new album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 this week, knocking Madonna’s MDNA out of the top slot. Minaj’s sophomore disc sold 253,000 copies in its first week, which is slightly more than expected.
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Minaj’s debut, Pink Friday, debuted at No. 2 on the chart on December, 11, 2010 with 375,000 copies sold, although that higher number is related to the fact that the disc was released on Black Friday. As for Madonna? Well, her new effort is down to No. 8 with only 48,000 copies sold. This marks an 86.7 percent drop from last week, where the singer sold 359,000 copies of MDNA. This drop is actually very similar to the one Lady Gaga’s Born This Way saw last year. That disc 84.27 percent in its second week, initially selling 1.11 million before falling to only 174,000 in its second week.

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Ever wonder how someone like Nicki Minaj comes to exist? We did, so we set out to discover the origins of this rare talent and larger-than-life personality. (Peep this if you’re not sure what we mean.) Here’s what we found, in case you’re looking to recreate the magic — best of luck with that endeavor!
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Nicki Minaj was born as Onika Tanya Maraj on December 8, 1982 in the city of Saint James on the Caribbean island state of Trinidad and Tobago. Her parents are of mixed Indian and Afro-Trinidadian ancestry.

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After making the Grammy Awards her personal fiesta, British singer Adele kept the party train rolling last night at her native country’s answer to the Grammys, the annual BRIT Awards. The singer’s album 21 helped Adele garner even more accolades yesterday evening, including the prize for female solo artist as well as Album of the Year. “Nothing makes me prouder than coming home with six Grammys and then coming to the BRITs and winning album of the year,” Adele said in her acceptance speech. “I’m so proud to be British and to be flying our flag, and I’m so proud to be in the room with all of you.”

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So that the night could be properly concluded by a massive performance from Damon Albarn-led Britpop legends Blur, who accepted an award for outstanding contribution to music earlier in the evening, Adele was rushed off the stage, to which she shrugged and raised her middle finger while saying, “Can I just say then, goodbye, and I’ll see you next time round, then?”

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The NBA All-Star festivities will be underway next weekend in Orlando and if you think it’s all about basketball, you’re wrong. Pitbull, Mary J. Blige, Nicki Minaj, Ne-Yo, will.i.am and Flo Rida will all be performing through the weekend.
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Pitbull and Ne-Yo are teaming up for the NBA All-Star Game’s halftime show. The pair will perform their single “Give Me Everything” and have promised that “special guest performers” will be involved. Last year this slot was given to Rihanna, who brought out Drake and Kanye West.

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We hope you were one of the people who liked Nicki Minaj’s performance at the Grammys on Sunday because there’s more coming. The rapper’s five-minute rendition of “Roman’s Revenge” and “Roman Holiday,” which confused many viewers, was actually part of a movie she’s currently writing.
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Minaj told Billboard, “You know how people write plays and movies? That’s what I did. I wrote that and I gave the world a tiny little preview of what was to come. And so I have to perform it on the set in which it would be in the movie, right?” Minaj’s performance, which featured a priest who also escorted her down the red carpet at the awards show, was largely inspired by the 1973 movie The Exorcist. To her, the wild performance seems logical. “I don’t know what is the big issue?” she told Billboard.

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