Hot 100 First-Timers: Ab-Soul & Daylyt Debut Thanks to Features on J. Cole’s ‘Pi’

Ab-Soul and Daylyt are officially Billboard Hot 100-charting artists for the first time thanks to their featured appearances on J. Cole’s “Pi” from his new album, Might Delete Later.

The set, released on Cole World/Interscope Records, debuts at No. 1 on the Top Rap Albums chart and No. 2 on the Billboard 200 (dated April 20) with 115,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in its opening week (April 5-11), according to Luminate.

Both artists are featured on the project’s “Pi,” which debuts at No. 62 on the Hot 100 with 8.1 million official U.S. streams. It also starts at No. 29 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.

Ab-Soul, from Carson, Calif., is signed to Top Dawg Entertainment and has been releasing music for nearly two decades. He has released five solo studio albums in his career: Longterm Mentality (2011), Control System (2012 – No. 91 Billboard 200 peak), These Days… (2014, No. 11), Do What Thou Wilt. (2016, No. 34) and Herbert (2022). He was also a member of West Coast hip-hop supergroup Black Hippy, alongside Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock and ScHoolboy Q, until it disbanded in 2022.

Ab-Soul has also been a go-to collaborator among many R&B/hip-hop artists over the course of his career, including Jhene Aiko, Danny Brown, Chance the Rapper, The Game, Freddie Gibbs, Macklemore and the late Mac Miller.

As for Daylyt, “Pi” marks the Watts, Calif., emcee’s first entry on Billboard’s charts. The artist, who Vibe dubbed “battle rap’s wildest lyricist” in 2013, has released three solo LPs: The Black and White Project, with Mr2theP and Darren Vegas (2016), Kingqueen (2018) and Jesus Is King (2019).

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