Back in 2008, Lil Wayne was preparing the world for Nicki Minaj's reign as the Queen of hip-hop. Although the Young Money camp isn't as tight-knit as it once was, whenever either artist drops something new, it's still a Young Money affair. 2018 was the year when we received highly-anticipated projects from Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj. After releasing Queen and Tha Carter V within a month apart from each other, the two superstars recently earned platinum certifications for their respective projects.
Lil Wayne Tha Carter V and Nicki Minaj's Queen both marked major releases from Young Money. On Friday, both albums received platinum certification from the RIAA. Wayne's Tha Carter V faced numerous delays ahead of its release, mainly caused by his rift with Birdman and Cash Money. The project helped Wayne earn his fourth number one album on the Billboard 200. Tha Carter V also marked the third biggest sales week for an album in 2018 while the massive amount of on-demand streams it received in its first seven days made the album have the second biggest streaming week in history.
Nicki Minaj's Queen debuted at number 2, but never managed to secure the top spot. Unfortunately, this sparked a "feud" of sorts between Nicki and Travis Scott who's album Astroworld maintained the top position on the Billboard 200 for several weeks in a row. Nicki still moved 185K within its first week before the RIAA certified the album Gold shortly after.