Nicki Minaj’s ‘Super Bass’ Has Been RIAA Certified Diamond
The decade old song peaked at the No.3 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and continues to be a fan favorite.
Nicki Minaj’s monumental smash hit single, “Super Bass,” from Pink Friday has become RIAA certified Diamond. The decade old song peaked at the No.3 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and continues to be a fan favorite.
In comparison to the majority of Pink Friday, “Super Bass” is strictly sticky-sweet, bubblegum pop. That’s no surprise when the co-writer here is Grammy-nominated songwriter Ester Dean (Rihanna’s “What’s My Name?” and Katy Perry’s “Firework”) and production is handled by Kane Beatz (Young Money’s “BedRock,” Trey Songz’s “Bottoms Up”). Switching between an innocent sing-song chorus and catchy rap verses, she confesses being head over heels in love: “Boy, you got my heartbeat running away/Beating like a drum and it’s coming your way/Can’t you hear that boom-ba-doom-boom, boom-ba-doom-boom bass?”
“‘Super Bass’ is about the boy that you are crushing over,” Minaj told MTV News while on the set of the video. “And you kind of want to get your mack on, but you’re taking the playful approach.” The video encompassed that playful nature, with Minaj and her crew of dancers sporting matching outfits (complete with the rapper’s signature Barbie-pink hair) as they flirt with muscled-up men.
Super Bass” was a smash: it peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the rapper’s then-biggest single. The accomplishment doubled as the highest-charting rap hit by a solo female artist since Missy Elliott’s “Work It” in 2002. The triple-platinum Pink Fridaytopped the Billboard 200, making her just the fourth female rapper to accomplish that feat. Minaj’s success was partly due to the buzz surrounding “Super Bass,” which was set off by Taylor Swift three months prior to its release.
During a radio interview with Nashville’s 107.5 in February 2011, the pop star played the relatively unknown Pink Friday deep cut. “I remember being at a hotel and watching Taylor Swift on my laptop, and being like, ‘Wow, she rapped every single word,’” Kane Beatz recalled to Billboard in 2019. “It became a viral thing that girls wanted to show that they could rap the whole verse.”
