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Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century Podcast: Nicki Minaj (No. 13) & Eminem (No. 12)

This episode of Billboard's Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century podcast focuses on a pair of rap greats, Nicki Minaj and Eminem.

First, host Andrew Unterberger is joined by Billboard Hip-Hop writer Michael Saponara and Branded Producer and Social Manger (and No. We set the scene of how inhospitable the mainstream was to female rappers in the late ’00s, and detail how Nicki was still able to become ubiquitous in the era’s top 40 — both as the leading lady on her own records and a scene-stealing guest on countless other artists’ — and how her legacy was confirmed in the early 2020s with a couple chart milestones and a rising tide of younger rappers and pop stars citing her as a formative influence. We then cover the somewhat rockier rest of the decade to come for Eminem, and how he was able to reaffirm his standing in rap and pop at the turn of the 2010s and successfully transition into veteran hitmaker status, which he holds to this day.

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