Analysing The Failure Of Nicki Minaj's 'The Re-Up'

Nov

28

2012

Analysing The Failure Of Nicki Minaj’s ‘The Re-Up’

Written by TriniTrent | Filed under Boiling Point,Charts,Nicki Minaj

Nicki Minaj’s ‘Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded – The Re-Up’ album cover.

The best-selling albums on the Billboard 200 were announced earlier today and a particular Pop star was noticeably absent from the upper region of the chart. However, as the excuses pour in to explain the failure of Nicki Minaj’s ‘Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded – The Re-Up’, let’s interpret the facts.

Following the standard Billboard 200 chart rules, the sales of ‘The Re-Up’ were combined with those of the original ‘Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded’ album. So, the 5K copies sold by ‘Roman Reloaded’ this week were added to the 31K of ‘The Re-Up’ for a humble sum of 36K units. Those sales boosted the former up the charts with a 591% surge and repositioned it from #107 to #27.

Naturally, Minaj’s camp were quick to offer numerous theories regarding the underwhelming showing of ‘The Re-Up’. Firstly, they correctly indicated that the rerelease was not sold at Walmart or Target – Minaj’s largest retailers – as a result of expected low demand for reissued material and the former store’s policy of avoiding content requiring parental advisory labels.

Yet, what Minaj’s team failed to mention was the fact that ‘The Re-Up’ was readily available via digital retailers such as Amazon and iTunes but was also performed dismally at those outlets. In fact, the album spent the majority of the last week outside of the latter’s top 50 chart and was even outsold by Mariah Carey’s 18-year old ‘Merry Christmas’ set. Did iTunes “set her up to fail”?

Secondly, while prancing around the big pink elephant in the room, which also didn’t purchase a copy of ‘The Re-Up’, Minaj’s spin doctors hinted that most rereleases rarely excel and the album was a success when compared to others. Namely, they related its sales to those of Katy Perry’s ‘Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection’.

Despite being backed by a pair of monster hit singles – ‘Wide Awake’ and ‘Part of Me’ – ‘The Complete Confection’ only drove the sales of ‘Teenage Dream’ to 33K copies during its opening week. Still, the former was released in March 2012 – nineteen months after the initial debut of ‘Teenage Dream’. Contrarily, ‘The Re-Up’ arrived seven months after ‘Roman Reloaded’ and during the November 2012 Thanksgiving sales rush.

Moreover, ‘The Complete Confection’ comprised only three new tracks and a two remixes, which were available on iTunes long before the rerelease hit stores. Minaj’s ‘The Re-Up’, on the other hand, featured seven new songs as well as a DVD of previously unseen footage.

‘The Re-Up’ was also promoted on a much larger scale that ‘The Complete Confection’. In addition to countless media interviews and a performance at the 2012 American Music Awards, Minaj also starred in her widely publicised ‘Nicki Minaj: My Truth’ three-part special on the E! Channel.

Hence, ‘The Re-Up’ simply failed to land a major impact on the charts. Regardless of the numerous excuses concocted by Minaj and her team, the major promotional campaign developed to push the album should have resulted in greater success, at least via digital retailers. See you next year when Minaj releases ‘Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded – The Re-Up Reinvention Spectacular‘ with a free order of fries at your local KFC.

Thoughts?
- Follow @TheLavaLizard
  Tweet
- Make sure that you follow The Lava Lizard on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Tumblr
Keys: billboard 200, nicki minaj
- the real xoxo
  
  the album was garbage! “freedom” had potential until she started dissing female rappers and grief-leeching. Im glad the album flopped she needs to humble herself. All shade aside she should have put out a mixtape instead of a re-release.
- http://twitter.com/L3KTRiC Fabian
  
  *SCREAMS*
  - MannyMusikLover
    
    lol me tooo lmao
- Nelz91
  
  Thumb me down! Now :””’-(
  
  See thats that shit I dont like. You would think you have more incentive to buy Katys re-release instead of Nicki’s since there was a longer gap in between. #2 the digital copies do not come with the DVD. #3 This cd from the time she released Roman reloaded she said (in her song) she was gonna do a re-release. You’re not presenting the whole story but hey who has time to do that anyway.
  - PinkLips
    
    Do you really think that Nicki expected to cut a re-release this soon? So what if she mentioned the re-release in a song. It’s the timing that is so shockingly unexpected. At this point in Nicki’s career, with all of her bragging, major label, and endless promotion, she should never debut anything less than 100k for any product.
    
    How many sales do you think Kanye and Jay-Z would have made if they would have re-released Watch the Throne? Well, she says she’s in the Hov lane?
    
    anon
    
    “well, she says she’s in the Hov lane?”
    
    lmfaooooo shit even Rita Ora sold more units than this.
- kjhnj
  
  lmfao. she just needs to let go. people are done with this entire pink friday era. time time out, let people miss you and come back with something new and a brand new attitude.
  
  and stop dissing mariah bcuz she is the reason why your here tbh (not lil kim).. remember when mariah named her fanbase lambs like 17yrs ago? now we have the barbs, beyhive, navy, lilmonsters etc
  remember when mariah made an alter ego from her heartbreaker vid and called her bianca and was talking in a british accent? now we have roman zoolanski and martha who also talk in british accent. pay homage ho (you too sasha fierce)
  nicholas needs to apologise, change her attitude and come back with some fresh stuff. smh her antics have completely overshadowed her talent and thats a shame
  - Liberiangirl
    
    LMAOROTF, no you did not just call this woman Nicholas!!!!! *screams with laughter* I.AM.DONE
  - NOTAFANOFNICKIMINAJ
    
    She’s COPYING LIL KIM STYLE NOT MARIAH DAMN CAREY THE R&B SINGER??? CHECK YOUR HISTORY.
- IOTA
  
  About time, she needed a wake-up call honestly. What do ya’ll think?
- WonderLand19
  
  Dear old Nicki…….. LOOOOOOOL!
- Minaj A Twa
  
  The CD is readily available to order online also, like on Amazon. You can get a CD if you really wanted one.
- anthony
  
  you just dont see it from mr nicolas. lol I didnt think you would dedicate an entire post to her about how she failed, to be honest I only think you did it because of the beef with mariah. lol If she didnt cuss mariah out you would not have made this post, you wanted it to be known she is a failure. But hey its your blog and I still like it. your so shady lol
  - Kayla
    
    I have to disagree. Trent has been dissing Nicki Minaj check out his video Say no to Nicki Mina, I believe that’s the name. That video is dated months ago. However I don’t think that her feud with Mariah helped matters either. I think the feud with MC was just the straw that broke the camels back for most people. She just needs to sit back and stop dissing other females but then says that she opened doors for them. Nicki has only opened doors for herself and slammed it shut behind her. She doesn’t want any competition. She wants to be the only female rapper so that she can go down in history as the best.
    
    Liberiangirl
    
    Yuuuuuup *Trey Songz voice*
    
    PinkLips
    
    Because her outburst with Mariah was something she couldn’t deny. Nicki has been disrespectful, hateful and spiteful from the time she worked at Red Lobster but we never saw any of it. So Nicki’s conniving ass would smile for the cameras and tell the media and the world that it wasn’t her fault.
    
    But bam. Here’s comes the video outburst with Mariah. She’s busted. How can she deny the world what we saw. Trust me, if there were no video, Nicki would’ve twisted that story in ways you wouldn’t have believed.
    
    Nicki was successful because she was likeable. After the video, she was no longer likeable to nobody but her die-hard barbz and money-hungry businesses.
  - PinkLips
    
    He is speaking the truth and he didn’t need to write this article for the world to know that the Re-up is an epic fail.
- NEW
  
  Don’t hate breh before I send my barbz
  - Beth
    
    You shoulda sent your Barbz to amazon.com to buy this album….#NoShadeButShade
    
    NEW
    
    Nah Amazon is too mainstream
- shadenika
  
  you seem to have forgotten one thing, this may be an early re-release but it’s still of another genre, Katy perry released her confetti collection as a POP star.. Nicki Minaj is a rapper at the end of the day, comparing RAP sales to POP sales, POP will succeed always. people may not have wanted to buy the album as a whole because they already had the Roman Reloaded Album, but if you took notice to the iTunes 100 charts EVERY SINGLE ONE of the Re-Up Tracks re-entered the charts as if they were separate singles which must mean people did buy the re up but not as an album as whole. but as music yes. You may call this album a “Flop” but because it’s on 726,000 album sales in the US as a RAPPER, she still had the highest selling Hip-Hop of the album “Trent”. so PLEASE, before you state facts off the back of your head come correct. you will never get far having to compare Rap to Pop. would you compare Justin Biebers Album Sales to that of Jay-Z’s and say Bieber is a better artist because he can sell more? pls sis. this dragging of Nicki needs to stop you’re suppose to be professional, but it seems your mango shaped head is always coming for Nic’s neck. come with every fact or don’t post at all.
  - Rick
    
    Nicki flopped. That is all.
  - NOTAFANOFNICKIMINAJ
    
    WHY STAND UP FOR HER SO DILIGENTLY. SHE’S A RIP OFF AND A FOOL AND COMPARED TO THE LEGENDS OF FEMALE RAP SHE DOESN’T COME CLOSE.
  - PinkLips
    
    Nicki hides behind the Rap title because she can’t compete with the true Pop stars. Trust me, Nicki is Pop. So says my ears, the media’s ears and the ears on the streets. How many articles have you read where they call Nicki a Pop Superstar? Yes, they use the term rapper but mainly she’s Pink and Pop.
  - anon
    
    Chile boo Nicki been sold her soul to Pop music as soon as she hit mainstream. Miss me with this rapping talking talk because all I hear from her mostly is Pop garbage
    
    anon
    
    *rapping talk
    
    excuse me I had one too many glasses of wine lol
  - MusicIsMe
    
    LOL RAP??? They are easily comparable, Nicki’s music has become more pop orientated than Katy Perry and on top of that it is the generic nonsense no other artists want…
    
    And the singles on iTunes, how long did that last? 6 days, and how many of them are there now a week later?
    
    How many of Nicki’s PFRR singles were successful? The POP orientated ones, not Freedom, or Stupid Hoe, VaVa Voom, Starships and Pound The Alarm…
    
    If you are going to come with an arguement please state the evident LOGIC in what you are saying…
- Benron (King Of The Fucking Navy)
  
  I have been saying this. Walmart does not sell anybody’s albums accept Justin Beiber and Taylor swift. No Nicki, Rihanna, Beyonce, Chris Brown, Usher, Neyo (etc.) albums will ever be found there. The only valid thing is Target rejected selling her album cause they knew it would flop.
  - theman
    
    Walmart has all of those albums.
    
    Bey/MC stan
    
    Um last year I bought TTT from walmart.I just got another copy of “4″ from walmart as well.
  - DOMOdotSCORE
    
    Walmart sells those albums & more. The thing is that they just don’t sell the explicit version of the albums, they only sell the edited version. Most people avoid getting albums from certain artists from Walmart because it’ll be censored.
- larry
  
  if you cant say Amen just say ouch!
- kjhnj
  
  i do think that the fact the re-release came after a shorter period (compared to katy perry) is more of the reason why people didnt buy it. reloaded only just came 7months ago, re-releases usually come after a year. that coupled with the fact that reloaded had like 50 fucking songs on it. it was a gumbo mess and i guess having an additional 8 new songs was just wayy too much and people were not here for that..
  this is just another way to look at it tho.
  - kjhnj
    
    and also the genre change cmay have confused things too.. reloaded was released with starships as its lead, the pop fans were more here for the album than the rap fans.
    now she tryna get the rap fans back, her 12yr old white girls aint gonna buy an album with just rap songs.
    nicki just hasnt gotten a firm grasp on all her fans period. one side is only here for pop and another is just here for the hardcore stuff. so when she moves one direction, only those fans will support.
  - PinkLips
    
    Seven new songs and a DVD during Black Friday? Please her fans should have been just as excited. The fact is she gained Pop fans but her street fans are gone. Don’t mistake black fans for street fans. Yes, she has black fans but they are not hip-hop heads. They are young so they were probably brought up on mainstream music, which makes her music easy to digest.
    
    But the streets ain’t talking about Nicki. I never hear her records in the barber shop and for black people, that’s where the streets are.
- http://twitter.com/#!/EriqSanez theeriq
  
  I guess people like her plastic songs but at the end of the day imagine someone visiting your home, finding a Nicki Minaj CD pon the taible… :O
- Jason
  
  Nicki Minaji is a gimmick! The issue with that is, she attracts fans who have the attention span of a ferret on meth. Nicki’s antics and coonery can’t be compared to an artist who gains loyal fans by demonstrating actual talent.
- MC
  
  Yup.
- abi
  
  plus her attitude turns people off! people don’t want to bother themselves with her and her stank attitude
- KC
  
  I don’t see the big deal. It’s just a rerelease.
- Angelak
  
  She didn’t make the re-up just for money. She did it for her fans and yes I am a fan. I get that most of yall do not like her, but I think for right now she is the best female rapper we have had in years. She has paid homage to those who has opened doors for her, and to be honest you cant expect someone to keep saying how much they admire and respect someone if they wont respect their peers. Yes, the re-up didn’t do well but obviously her fans understand more why she put the rerelease out. Those weren’t excuses those were facts. Nicki gave her reason for doing the rerelease and it was to give her fans something new to listen to while she works on album number three. You can say what you want about me and how I stand for nicki, but some of you hated her when she first came out because of what lil kim said. Oh and by the way lil kim did open more doors for her than mariah.
  - PinkLips
    
    No, they are excuses. Nicki’s fans were claiming that it was going to debut at 1m sales. Yall were expecting the Re-Up and Reloaded to blow the numbers off the chart and they didn’t. Nicki said that Reloaded was a masterpiece but when it didn’t sell like she promoted it, she said it had more of a mixtape feel. Really, starships has a mixtape feel?
    
    Anways, now that Re-up Re-Flopped, yall are saying it’s only a re-release. Review the Barbz timeline and see the type of shit they were talking beforehand.
- NEW
  
  You people talk a lot about Nicki Minaj. Live your life as she lives hers. No more hate pls.
- tricia
  
  Love it
- MmmHmm
  
  LMAO! TOO TRUE! AND THE FACT THAT TARGET RECENTLY CAME OUT & SAID THAT THE PFRR THE RE-UP IS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE ON TARGET.COM IS JUST ICING ON THE CAKE. SO SHE NEEDS TO STOP MAKING EXCUSES!
  
  ALSO SOLANGEs NEW EP TRUE IS NUMBER #14 ON ITUNES TOP ALBUMS WITH HARDLY ANY PROMO! AND IT CAME OUT ON NOV 27TH!
  
  ONIKAs STRUGGLE IS TOO REAL! LOL SO MUCH $ INVESTED IN HER & SO MUCH LOST!
- theman
  
  Her attitude, lack of a hit single, lack of hard copies are the reason for this massive flop. She had a whole bunch of new songs on her the Re-Up. It should have done alot better. They didn’t sale it because the previous album didn’t sale as much. Katy’s album continued to sale though, so that’s different. No ones buying that she’s a hiphop artist crap. Now she’s a hiphop artist because her album completely underperformed. LOOOOL. She’s been releasing pop singles….
- theman
  
  Having those big retailers are very important.
- ok ok
  
  she should have never put that flop ciara on a track. anything ciara touches flops!all
- Jessica
  
  Yes he made that video but there has been nothing but negative nicki minaj posts ever since she cussed out Mariah. Lol he says he is hard on artists because he sees potential, but I would really like to know what he sees in her because its nothing but negative things lol. But hey whatever floats your boat like I said before I am still a fan of the website just my opinion so people don’t kill me. Lol
- Jessica
  
  I just know for me if I Didnt like someone I wouldn’t post on th that much. Just posts about them dropping an album and my opinion. Everything that is posted about this woman is so shady. Lol he obviously is interested in her she has so many posts. Lol
- eva
  
  Lol somebody said it’s just a re release what’s the big deal lol this re release was what Nicki thought was gonna make PFRR platinum by combining sales it’s a big deal because it’s hilarious all that shit she talked and she flopped (not that she wasn’t flopping before) so of course we are going to point & laugh & I love Target’s shady asses saying they’re not gonna carry something that doesn’t sell lol I mean it’s the truth they do it with all albums but the shade of it though like this chick act like she’s one of the greatest selling artists of all time the way she runs her mouth #delusional
- theman
  
  People have got to realize that digital singles are completely different from albums. The physical albums are very very important. They are the biggest format in the realm of albums. It goes to show you that the digital format was simply nowhere near enough. Target and Walmart are huge corporations.
- DC3BKM
  
  I am ready for this era to be over. I think she tried to do too much in a short span of time. She tried to amass as many fans as she could by doing pop music, but not realizing pop fans buy singles, not albums. Not to mention, her album had no cohesion. It started out hip-hop and then all of a sudden pure pop. Hopefully, she and her team are taking notes as how to not fail the next go around. Nicki is best when she does hip-hop. Pink Friday is her best album to date, and it sold so will because she actually had something to prove. She needs to get back into that mind state.
- LOL
  
  To be completely honest Nicki can satisfy both her pop fans and hip hop fans, just look at ‘Pink Friday’. To me the album was a middle ground between the two satisfying fans of both genres hence why it did so well.
  
  From when she announced the re release I knew it was going to be rap. I said in a blog of my own that with female MC’s and rappers making a return to music such as Missy, Eve, Lil Kim, Azealia Banks, Angel Haze the crown she obtained as ‘best female rapper’ is under threat. People will realise she is the weakest of all the above but because she is doing it alone right now, she is considered the best and thats what makes her hot and popular.
  
  Word of advice – steer away from naming anymore albums after coloured days of the week, I think she has ruined the success of ‘Pink Friday’ and tarnished its name by issuing reloaded and now ‘The Re-Up’, which is quite sad. To begin with this was a lazy move. Reloaded was suppose to come just as hard as ‘Pink Friday’ which it didn’t, she should’ve quit whilst she was ahead and skipped to the third album, without all this mess in between. Lame excuses. Chil’ please!
  
  Nicki will earn more if she was strictly a feature artist, she stands out much better than when she’s on records of her own. She hasn’t got the lyrical content or ability to be doing solo albums 22 tracks strong… *side eyes PFRR* #MixtapeQueen
- x
  
  Go analyze the failure that is your life.
  
  The Re-Up is great. Much better than that messy Roman Reloaded album
- cj
  
  hmm.. christina said before that she’s on team nicki.. well well. birds of the same feather flop together i guess?
- patriciojuan
  
  The Re-Flop.
- Unbothered
  
  The stans are so mad. But why? Did any of them actually buy The Re-Up? Take that anger over to iTunes and put it to use. Oh wait…
- Polo
  
  I Freaking LOVE! this Blog Let alone Trent And this Post Is embarrassing In a way I mean wow cant deny when she raps she is dope but 36k records sold?! LOL When you compare yourself so a messiah and you have not been out longer then the chicks you be trashing what can you expect somewhere that gorgeous tiny Asian lady (lil kim) Snickers
- DOMOdotSCORE
  
  Re-release or not, it is still a product. No one wants to release a product that isn’t going to be purchased. That’s like going to work and not getting a paycheck: that’s volunteer work which is not what she signed up for. If she did it for her fans, and not to pad her sales or make money, then why wasn’t it released as a free ep: use your minds. She has yet to realize that her fanbase is too shaky for re-releases, especially in this musical climate. She needs to develop her artistry first, gain a solid, loyal fanbase then she can re-release an album. You don’t re-release an album that’s not selling, it’s wasteful of your time, energy and material that could’ve been better utilized on a new album.
  
  She also needs to realize that her likability is fading with all these moments where we all see her being rude and mean-spirited beyond her music. Artists need to realize that a good image can sell an album just as good as the music itself can. If she had a great team around her, they would’ve been smart enough to advise her against this. But then again, her attitude has probably caused them to conspire against her to let her fall. Pleasantry begets pleasantry; Anger begets anger.
- dmanblanco
  
  Thats what she gets that way she learns!!! just saying releasing in the holiday season for a “top pop artist” should have been an easy feat but the retailers dont even want to deal with her because they still have PFRR sitting in the shelves collecting dust!
- tastefullynasty
  
  Yes. For. Regine! !
- CheReiHino
  
  KFC has fries? Since when?
- JustMe_Andria
  
  The very last sentence of this article is priceless.
- http://www.zillzdesignedit.com/ zillz
  
  that’s a great breakdown.
- okkk
  
  Besides Gaga Fame re release, what other ones have been successful?
  - shantay
    
    rihanna good girl gone bad!
- Tim
  
  All I have is one word…. FLOP.
- Pingback:
  Nicki Minaj Remains Silent On Grammy Nomination Snub, But Her Manager Thinks It’s “Bulls—-” – | VH1 Tuner
- - Search for:
  - Hot Stories
    - Trini Trent TV: The Music of the Islands
      Comments Off Comments
    - Trini Trent TV: White vs Black Racism
      Comments Off Comments
    - Trini Trent TV: 2014 Soca Monarch & Trinidad Carnival Review
      Comments Off Comments
    - Trini Trent TV: Gay Men On the Down Low
      Comments Off Comments
    - Trini Trent TV: Homophobia in Pop Culture
      Comments Off Comments
- - Hot Links

Analysing The Failure Of Nicki Minaj’s ‘The Re-Up’

Thoughts?

Hot Stories

Hot Links

Trini Trent TV

Latest News

The Archives

Analysing The Failure Of Nicki Minaj’s ‘The Re-Up’

Thoughts?

Hot Stories

Hot Links

Trini Trent TV

Latest News

Hot Tags

The Archives