THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

957-Nicki Minaj-Starships.

2012-Number 2 single.

Best Bit-At 1.09. She might look like butter wouldn’t melt, but she’s got one hell of a potty mouth!

Nicki Minaj was born Onika Tanya Maraj, on December 8th, 1982, in Saint James, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, she is the most successful female Rapper of all time, with record sales in excess of 100 million sold worldwide, and is often referred to as the ‘Queen of Rap.’ She originally adopted the stage name ‘Nicki Maraj, but it was later changed by the ‘CEO’ ‘Big Fendi,’ of ‘Dirty Money Records,’her label at that time, to ‘Nicki Minaj,’ with Minaj stating that ‘My real name is Maraj. Fendi flipped it when he met me, because I had such a nasty flow.’

As a child Nicki Minaj was brought up by her grandmother in Saint James, but at the age of five she moved to the ‘Bronx’ New York, where she lived with her mother, father and brother. Minaj started her music career in 2004 in a quartet called ‘The Hoodstars,’ she later uploaded songs on her ‘Myspace’ profile, sending several of her songs to people in the music industry, which brought her to the attention of the label ‘Dirty Money Records,’ where her first three releases were all ‘mixtapes,’ issued between 2007-2009. This led to her fellow American Rapper Lil Wayne (see also best songs 210) recommending her to ‘Young Money Entertainment.’

The discography of Nicki Minaj includes four studio Albums that have been released between 2010-2018, and 123 singles issued between 2010-2021. In America on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart she has charted within the top 40 on 25 occasions as the lead artist, with ‘Trolz,’ featuring ‘6ix9ine,’ (2020) and ‘Super Freaky Girl,’ (2022) both making Number 1. As the featured artist Nicki Minaj has achieved a further 33 top 40 hits, with ‘Say So’ (Remix) (2019) reaching Number 1, with ‘Doja Cat’ as the lead artist. On the UK top 40 singles chart she has had 21 entries as the lead artist, with ‘Bang Bang’ with Jessie J, and Ariana Grande, making Number 1. As the featured artist she has achieved a further 20 hits with ‘Woman Like Me’ (2018) reaching Number 1, with ‘Little Mix’ as the lead artist.

‘Starships’ was the first of six singles released from Nicki Minaj’s second studio Album ‘Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded,’ from April 2012. The song is credited with six writers, including Nicki Minaj, RedOne, Wayne Carter, and Bilai Hajji, with the production being by RedOne, Rami Yacoub, and Carl Falk, who were also the other co-writers of the song.

‘Starships’ started out life as a ‘beat’ that Nadir Khayat, who is better known by his stage name ‘RedOne’ (see also best songs 363) had sent to Nicki Minaj. Minaj has said that she took the ‘beat’ into the studio and improvised the first verse, she recalled,’Mumbling and just saying the first thing that came into my head, and we recorded it, because I just felt like, let’s go to the beach… let’s go get away. It was just so good. It feels good.’ During the song Nicki Minaj quotes from the English nursery rhyme, ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,’ which dates back to 1806, and was written by the English poet Jane Taylor (1783-1824.) In 2013 the songwriters were all sued by the American Electronic artist Clive Tanaka, who claimed that they stole his 2010 song ‘Neu Chicago,’ to create ‘Starships,’ the case was dismissed, but it is worth taking a listen to ‘Neu Chicago,’ to note the similarities. Also well worth taking a listen to is the 2011 Britney Spears single ‘Till the World Ends,’ which also bares more than the odd similarity in structure.

‘Starships’ is among the best selling songs of all time, with sales in excess of 7.2 million copies worldwide, with around 4.5 million sold in America. On Billboard ‘Starships’ peaked at Number 5 for four non-consecutive weeks, and in July 2012 it made history on that chart by having spent 21 consecutive weeks in the top 10 from its debut week, surpassing the Black Eyed Peas’ single ‘I Gotta Feeling’ (see also best songs 234) from 2009. Nicki Minaj has explained the songs meaning,’Starships are meant to fly,’ is a line about reaching one’s full potential in life. That’s what I feel. Just go for it! Stop limiting yourself! And that’s a great feeling. It’s a great feeling to not box yourself into anyone’s limitations or ideas or judgements. That’s what it means to me.’

‘Uh, let’s go to the beach-each, let’s go get a wave, they say what they gonna say. Have a drink, clink, found the Bud Light, bad bitches like me is hard to come by.’