With simply a few days to go till Thanksgiving, Billboard has launched its year-end charts (the music business, very similar to all these turkeys, just about dies with the vacations, so it’s often greatest to not rely the final month of the 12 months, which Mariah Carey rules with an iron fist anyway). Those charts tabulate all of the gross sales and streams up til the second week of November (together with, final 12 months’s December stats), then inform us what we’ve listened to essentially the most collectively (like Spotify Wrapped however for the US as a complete).
While nation music, pop, and the rap-R&B of SZA dominated as a complete, the highest hip-hop monitor of the 12 months (at No. 5 total) was Metro Boomin’s tackle a mid-2000s traditional. “Creepin’” that includes The Weeknd and 21 Savage covers Mario Winans’ 2004 hit “I Don’t Wanna Know,” which itself sampled the Fugees’ 1996 tune “Ready or Not,” which in flip sampled Enya’s 1987 tune “Boadicea.” Released on January 27 as a single from Metro’s then-latest album Heroes & Villains “Creepin’” peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100 on February 6. It at present has over 1 billion streams on Spotify and 86 million cumulative views on YouTube throughout its visualizer, official music video, and audio stream (not together with the seemingly dozens of bootleg streams).
Of course, in the event you don’t wish to rely that because the “top rap song” of 2023 because it solely encompasses a rap verse from 21 Savage, the following qualifying monitor additionally contains 21 Savage. “Rich Flex,” from Drake and 21’s joint album Her Loss additionally ranked close to the highest of the year-end checklist, coming in at No. 14. Sorry, Pusha T stans and Drake haters (similar distinction, proper?) — it doesn’t appear like The Boy has misplaced his contact simply but.
Other high tracks embody “All My Life” by Lil Durk feat. J. Cole, “Just Wanna Rock” by Lil Uzi Vert, and “Fukumean” by Gunna. Also, Ice Spice actually did show to be the reigning princess of rap, showing no fewer than 4 instances on the checklist — essentially the most of any feminine rapper.
You can take a look at the complete checklist here.
