As the dust settled on a whirlwind week for Nicki Minaj, Megan Thee Stallion and the rappers’ millions of fans, both acts can claim a new hit to their catalogs. Megan Thee Stallion’s “Hiss” launches at No. 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts for her third champ on each, while Minaj’s “Big Foot” opens at No. 10 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
For “Hiss,” the spitfire track registered 29.2 million first-week streams, 2.9 million radio airplay audience impressions and 104,000 downloads sold in the tracking week of Jan. 26-Feb. 1, according to Luminate. The song’s profile grew throughout the week, largely due to controversy surrounding the lyric “These h–s don’t be mad at Megan, these h–s mad at Megan’s Law.”
Many commenters interpreted the line to refer to Minaj and her husband, Kenneth Petty, who was convicted of an attempted rape in 1995 and is required to register as a sex offender. (Megan’s Law is a 1996 federal law mandating public disclosure about convicted and registered sex offenders).
In response, Minaj fired off a series of tweets about her former “Hot Girl Summer” collaborator, culminating in the “Big Foot” release on Jan. 29. Due to the Monday drop, the song only accrued four days of activity for the standard Friday-Thursday tracking week. Still, “Big Foot” captured 10.6 million official U.S. streams in that period and 37,000 sales downloads, with 588,000 in radio airplay audience – notably, unlike “Hiss,” “Big Foot” is not being promoted as a radio single.
With “Big Foot,” Minaj secures her 46th top 10 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. She remains in second place for the most among women, behind Aretha Franklin’s 52 titles and in sixth place on the overall count.
Elsewhere, “Big Foot” starts at No. 8 on Hot Rap Songs and No. 23 on the all-genre Hot 100.
