Drake continues his Rolling Stone Artists 500 No. 1 reign for third week in a row with 122M streams
Drake holds the crown on the Rolling Stone Artists 500 chart for the third week in a row at No. 1, with 122.6 million streams for the week of June 12 to June 18. The closest challenger behind Drake was fellow rapper Lil Baby, who scored an impressive week on the charts, rising from No. 5 to No. 2.
Drake held onto No. 1 on the Artists 500 even as his latest single 'Toosie Slide' fell from No. 6 to No. 10 on the Top 100 Songs chart with 12 million streams, and his mixtape, 'Dark Lane Demo Tapes', held fast at No. 6 on the Top 200 Albums chart, moving 35,000 album-equivalent units, according to Rolling Stone. 'Toosie Slide' released on April 3 and 'Dark Lane Demo Tapes' released on May 1.
Lil Baby's new protest song, 'The Bigger Picture', debuted at No. 2 on the RS 100 with 26.4 million streams, which helped his latest album, 'My Turn' (released in February) earn another week at No. 1 on the RS 200, moving 72,000 album units. Although, in contrast, Lil Baby’s total streaming tally, reaching 105.7 million for the week, still fell behind Drake's.
There weren't any major new songs or albums notably heating up the Artists 500 chart this week. Even the week's second-biggest new single 'Trollz', by Tekashi 6ix9ine and Nicki Minaj, which debuted at No. 3 on the RS100, unsuccessfully boosted either artist in the chart's upper tiers. Additionally, K-pop group NCT 127, whose new Korean album, ‘NCT 127 Neo Zone’, debuted at No. 13 on the RS 200, moving 26,000 album units, although it only amassed 1.1 million streams, which wasn’t enough to help get them on the RS500 at all.
Nevertheless, the RS500 chart remained reasonably steady this week. DaBaby landed at No. 3 with 78.5 million streams as his latest single, 'Rockstar', with Roddy Ricch, scored another week at No. 1 on the RS 100. Post Malone came in at at No. 4 with 76.7 million, Lil Uzi Vert followed at No. 5 with 72.8 million, Youngboy Never Broke Again earned No. 6 with 70.1 million, Future at No. 7 with 68 million, The Weeknd at No. 8 with 65.6 million, Juice WRLD at No. 9 with 59.6 million and Gunna at No. 10 with 54.9 million.
For those wondering how Rolling Stone tallies artistes on the Artists 500, their statement says the chart "ranks the most-streamed artists of the week in the United States, taking into account audio streams across an artist’s entire catalog during the tracking period. The chart does not include passive listening such as terrestrial radio or digital radio. The Artists 500 is updated daily, and each week Rolling Stone finalizes and publishes an official version of the chart, covering the seven-day period ended the previous Thursday."