[Header2 header=” Drake is a veteran record-setter when it comes to the Billboard Hot 100. “]
He’s broken the record for scoring the most Hot 100 hits, most Hot 100 Top 10 hits, and the most continuous time spent on the Hot 100, to name a few. Last week, he added to his long list of achievements with the release of his highly anticipated album, Certified Lover Boy, which earned him a record-setting nine simultaneous Top 10 hits and 22 Hot 100 debuts.
Charting nine Top 10 hits at once is a formidable achievement, to say the least. However, by the following chart week, all but three (Way 2 Sexy, Knife Talk, Girls Want Girls) had fallen out of the Top 10.
This short-lived charting is a common trait among hip hop hits. Since 2020, there have been 55 hip hop songs and 70 non-hip hop songs that charted in the Hot 100 Top 10. Thirty-one (56%) of the hip hop songs dropped out of the Top 10 after just one week, compared to only 23 (33%) of songs outside the hip hop genre.
What’s more, 30 songs (43%) of non-hip hop hits charted for 10 or more weeks in that same time frame, while just 11 songs (20%) of hip hop hits achieved such longevity.
[Header2 header=” So, how can a hip hop artist score a hit with staying power?”]
For answers, we’re going back to the record-breaker himself, who has achieved the most songs with staying power (10+ weeks in the Top 10) of any current hip hop artist.
From 2015 through the first half of 2021 (prior to his record-breaking week), Drake scored 22 Top 10 hits as a primary artist, seven of which charted for 10 weeks or more. And looking specifically at his 17 hip hop songs, just five achieved such longevity:
- God’s Plan
- Laugh Now Cry Later
- Nice For What
- In My Feelings
- Toosie Slide
So what are some of the things these five hits have in common?
- None are straight up hip hop. Four (80%) possess a pop influence and three (60%) an R&B influence. This is compared to just 29% and 41% having pop and R&B influences, respectively, in his overall hip hop body of work.
- All but one make use of either a pre-chorus or post-chorus (In My Feelings), song sections that appear far more often in non-hip hop hits than hip hop.
- All have a catchy, repetitive sung hook, another characteristic much more in-line with pop than hip hop.
- All contain a combination of sung and rapped vocals as opposed to purely rapped vocals.
Together, these characteristics indicate that his “poppier,” more mainstream-friendly songs tend to have more longevity than his straight-up hip hop hits, which is perfectly in-line with what we see in the overall Top 10.