Nicki Minaj's third opus, 'The Pinkprint,' and D'Angelo's surprise project, 'Black Messiah,' did exceptionally well this week on the Billboard 200 album chart.

Due to her massive promotional campaign, and a few well-received leaked singles, the Queen Barbz moved 244,000 copies last week. The album sold better than earlier projected numbers of 160,000 copies. Nicki ended up in the No. 2 position behind Taylor Swift, who reclaimed the No. 1 spot with her '1989' album.

And perhaps surprisingly, D'Angelo sold a whopping 117,000 copies of his new album, 'Black Messiah,' despite not having any promotion for it and only giving fans a 24-hour notice before it dropped. It reached No. 5 on the chart, which is an incredible feat for an artist who hasn't released any new material in 15 years.

Meanwhile, last week's No. 1, J. Cole's '2014 'Forest Hills Drive,' fell to No. 4 with a 135,000 copies sold last week. His latest sales total help make his album officially go gold.

As far as Nicki, it's safe to assume the high sales numbers are extremely pleasing to hear, considering she took a different route artistically by replacing party songs with a lot of introspective material.

The 'Only' rapper had something else to celebrate today -- her Mother's birthday. Nicki went on Twitter to give her mom a B-Day salute. She tweeted:

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