Nicki Minaj Blames Spotify and Kylie Jenner for 'Queen's' No. 2 Debut on Billboard

Nicki Minaj explained why she isn't too happy with Spotify's promotion of her new album, Queen, on Twitter Sunday.

Queen, which was released August 10, debuted in the No. 2 spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart, behind Travis Scott's Astroworld, for the week ending on August 16. Scott's album earned 205,000 equivalent album units, a measurement made up of traditional album sales, track equivalent albums and streaming equivalent albums. Minaj's earned 185,000 units, with 97,000 of those from streaming and equivalent to 128.7 million on-demand audio streams.

"Spotify put drake's [sic] face on every playlist but told me they'd have to teach me a lesson for playing my music 10 mins [sic] early on #QueenRadio," she tweeted, referring to her streaming her album on her Beats 1 radio show on Apple. "Even tho [sic] they've been giving away my music for free for years & I am one of the top Spotify artists of all time."

Spotify put drake’s face on every playlist but told me they’d have to teach me a lesson for playing my music 10 mins early on #QueenRadio. Even tho they’ve been giving away my music for free for years & I am one of the top Spotify artists of all time.

— Mrs. Petty (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018

Spotify had to teach me a lesson but rewarded the man who has had an Apple radio show the longest; inadvertently helping the Apple platform the most. Oh I can’t wait for #QueenRadio on Tuesday. They took away my promotion they had promised for the 1st cpl days b/c of this. #Queen

— Mrs. Petty (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018

"They took away my promotion they had promised for the 1st cpl [sic] days b/c [sic] of this," she continued in the next tweet.

As she explained, since her music was available on Apple, she assumed it was also available on other streaming services like Spotify. "Spotify said that Apple tweeted fans advising #Queen was up & therefore they had to teach me a lesson," she wrote. "My label [Republic Records] didn't want to defend me for fear of Spotify trying to teach Ariana [Grande, whose album, Sweetener, was released Friday] a 'lesson' too."

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Above, Nicki Minaj is pictured at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards at The Forum on August 27, 2017 in Inglewood, California. The rapper called out Travis Scott's album promotion on Twitter. Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

She pointed out her Spotify statistics (over 32 million monthly listeners and 12 million followers) in a subsequent tweet.

Do you know how many people subscribe to my Spotify page?????

— Mrs. Petty (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018

Minaj began her tweets with a screengrab of Kylie Jenner's Instagram post promoting her boyfriend's album with the caption "me and storm ready for tour" and a link to his online store. "I spoke to him. He knows he doesn't have the #1 album this week." Minaj wrote about Scott along with the photo and added, "I lost out on 12 hours of sales and did 200K in one week after I was supposedly canceled."

Despite its spot on the Billboard chart, she noted her album was number one in 86 countries.

I put my blood sweat & tears in writing a dope album only for Travis Scott to have Kylie Jenner post a tour pass telling ppl to come see her & Stormi. lol. Im actually laughing. #Queen broke the record of being number 1 in 86 countries. Thank Jesus & thank you to my fans.

— Mrs. Petty (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018

While Minaj tweeted she "won't" be quiet on Queen Radio this week, she also said "this is sarcasm/dry humor" in her last posts on the matter. "I'm having the most iconNIC [sic] time," she wrote. "But I did write a new freestyle n [sic] I'll record it later. I felt it was time."

People are calling me thinking I’m huffing & puffing. Omg y’all this is sarcasm/dry humor. Yikes. I’m having the most iconNIC time. Come let me kiss you. 😩😘😘😘 Who’s coming to the secret show? When people call me & hear me crackin up laughing they seem so puzzled. Loosen up 😅

— Mrs. Petty (@NICKIMINAJ) August 19, 2018

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