Drake’s “One Dance” has spent 15 weeks in the Number One spot.
Let that sink in for a moment. 15 weeks. During that time, we’ve had Culture Clash, we’ve left the EU, got a new England football manager, had a heatwave and gone Pokemon crazy.
Drizzy is just one week away from breaking the record for longest uninterrupted reign at the top of the charts (hold tight Bryan Adams who currently holds it with “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” which spent 16 weeks at number 1 in 1991).
Its safe to say that if it were not for the popularity of streaming, “One Dance” wouldn’t still be at the top, with the song receiving 4.33 million streams a week, and it’s absence on YouTube has meant that fans are forced to buy it (or listen to the shoddy cover versions).
We thought we’d give you a run down of 5 times some of our favourite rappers have totally dominated the charts:
Diddy
Way back in 1997, when Diddy hadn’t dropped his Puff Daddy moniker, he was dominating the Hot 100 charts with “I’ll be Missing You”, his touching tribute to Notorious B.I.G. It spent a record breaking 11 weeks in the top spot, and at the time, was the only rap song by a male to debut at #1. Not wanting to stop there, Diddy managed to knock himself off the top spot with “Mo Money Mo Problems” in July 97, which spent 2 weeks at number .
Fetty Wap
Not only wanting to be known as the rapper with the baby mama dramas, Fetty Wap made history fairly quickly. He is the first artist to have his first four tracks appear in the top 10 Billboard Rap Charts top 10 simultaneously. At one point, “Trap Queen”, “My Way”, “679” and “My Way” all had prime positions.
Chance The Rapper
Chi-town native Chance The Rapper made history when his mixtape, Coloring Book became the first streaming-only album to chart on the Billboard 200. Debuting at #8, the mixtape was the first album to chart based on streaming alone .
Desiigner
Before he was rapping about the Fairly Odd Parents, he was telling us about all the broads he gets in Atlanta (yet he’s never been?!). Panda debuted at #96 in March of this year before clawing it’s way to the number 1 spot in May. With Rolling Stone calling it ‘one of the 30 best songs of the first half of 2016’, the track managed to make it to the prime spot without a video.
Kanye West
No rap-round up is complete without Kanye West. This year Yeezy had his 7th #1 album on the Billboard 200 charts with The Life of Pablo. TLOP earner 99.94% of its sales through streaming alone. Since his 2004 debut, Kanye has had 55 of his tracks chart on the Billboard Hot 100, making him the 3rd most charted rap acts in history (putting him behind Lil Wayne who has 118, and Jay-z with 72).