Nicki Minaj’s Effect on Music Is Bigger Than You Think

A new study by Five Thirty Eight attests to the power of a Nicki Minaj guest verse. Allison McCann analyzed Spotify streaming data with the help of Spotfiy's data analyst Jomar Perez to compare the effect of a Nicki Minaj guest appearance versus a Drake guest appearance.

The study found that a Nicki Minaj guest appearance resulted in a song being streamed 172% more often than tracks without her. This was opposed to Drake's 126% and Lil Wayne's 21%. The study looked at Spotify streaming data from January to October 2015. According to Spotify's data, Nicki Minaj has guest appearances on 62 albums while Drake makes appearances on 63.

The study acknowledged that many guest appearances by Nicki Minaj and Drake were on big singles and well-known tracks as opposed to deep cuts. Five Thirty Eight took this into account and examined songs in the top quartile of streams. In this top tier, a Nicki Minaj guest spot was streamed 46% more often as opposed to a Drake one which would be streamed 25% more often.

Five Thirty Eight also analyzed songs that didn't attain the most clicks and compared these to tracks that garnered a similar amount of attention. In this category, a Nicki Minaj guest appearance earned a song a 55% increase. Surprisingly, a Drake appearance resulted in a negative as listeners were 23% less likely to listen to this song as opposed to other album tracks.

It appears that the Nicki Minaj Effect is much stronger than the Drake Effect. You can check out the full study at the Five Thirty Eight website.

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