Five years ago, if you’d asked anyone with even a casual knowledge of the music industry—and/or the Billboard charts—if they imagined a Canadian-born, half-white rapper to be leading one of the great chart runs in rap history with an Afrobeat/dancehall song as his album’s biggest hit, you probably would have been laughed out of the building.
Only Drake‘s laughing now.
The OVO architect is once again the king of the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard 200. Views, his fourth studio album, which was released on April 29, is the #1 album in the country for a ninth consecutive week, one of the greatest runs atop the chart in Hip Hop history. Biggie, JAY Z, Nas, Tupac, Puff Daddy, Kanye West, Lil Wayne. That’s just a portion of the list of artists who’ve never achieved that feat. The only two commercially successful to have done it during their careers? Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer.
How’s that for irony.
As far as the Hot 100 goes, Drake’s “One Dance” continues to rule the summer, and it’s the #1 song on the chart for the eighth total week, seven of which were consecutive. It should be noted all this dominance has come without the existence of a music video, which is still forthcoming from the Toronto artist. So despite the lengthy stay of “One Dance” at the pinnacle, we might be in for a summer of Hennessy in hand.
Re-visiting Views for a moment, Drake’s most recent opus might have some significant challengers in the coming weeks. On Friday, ScHoolboy Q will release his long-awaited sophomore album, Blank Face LP, and he should be considered a serious threat. In 2014, his major label debut, Oxymoron, debuted at #1 with over 135,000 units moved, and since then, Groovy Q has become a much bigger star. (The second single off BFLP, for example, features Kanye West.) In addition, at the end of the month, DJ Khaled‘s Major Key album will hit, and considering his many collaborations with Apple Music, he’ll likely get a major push from the streaming service. Enough of one to dethrone Views? Possibly, but here’s the catch. Major Key‘s lead single features Drake. Toronto’s resident sound boy still wins.
A couple notes from the Hot 100: Though it was released way back in January, Future‘s Purple Reign cut, “Wicked,” has hit its stride in these warm weather months. At #41, it could break into the Top 40 next week, giving the Atlanta rapper his 2nd entry into the Top 40 as a solo artist, and his first without a guest feature. (The previous solo entry was “Where Ya At,” which featured Drake. “Jumpman” got up as high as #12, but when paired with Drake in reference to WATTBA, Future isn’t considered a solo artist.) In addition, Wale‘s “My PYT” made an earnest jump up 14 spots to #80, and should continue to climb with the arrival of its forthcoming music video.
Next week look for early Blank Face LP projections, and whether or not Drake can make it a clean 10 weeks at #1 with Views.
For every great moment, there’s a song that goes with it. We believe this is the SOUNDTRACK OF YOUR LIFE – SOL REPUBLIC.
