Pirate Rapper Big Ro6 Spells ‘Viral’ With an ‘ARRRR…’

Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip. 

This week: Pirates have raided the Indianapolis rap scene, The Weeknd has a big new era-capping movie out and ATL rap just keeps riding the comeback wave.

Indianapolis Rapper Big Ro6 Rides “Pirate Rap” to a Breakthrough Single 

As Joey Bada$$ handles the West Coast in a still-unfurling, months-long rap beef, an entirely different wave is flooding out of the Midwest – Indiana, to be exact. Indianapolis rapper Big Ro6 has set the internet ablaze with “Decisions,” a track he originally dropped last fall (Oct. 13, 2024). 

When he first put out the song, Big Ro6 supported it with a series of live performances, including one on The Debut’s YouTube channel, which has garnered over 230,000 views since Nov. 6. The song did its thing throughout the holiday season and into the new year, but after Ryan Coogler’s Sinners hit theatres (April 18), the movie’s exploration of Black and Irish music helped attune consumer’s ears to the Gaelic-esque, “pirate” inflections in Big Ro6’s tone on “Decisions.” On May 2, Big Ro6 dropped the track’s official music video, gifting people a visual to attach to their social media posts about the song. By May 14, TikTok user @kye.phlow started a dance challenge with a video that has since earned over 85,500 views. Nicknamed a “hood shanty” and “pirate rap,” “Decisions” has been inescapable across social media – and that’s showing in its streaming totals. 

According to Luminate, “Decisions” earned 121,000 official on-demand U.S. streams during the week of May 2-8. By the following week (May 9-15), that figure exploded by 713% to over 986,000 streams. The first weekend post-music video release (May 9-12), the song pulled 119,000 streams. That figure boomed by over 1,176% to over 1.5 million streams the following weekend (May 16-19). 

With musicians like Morray hopping on the dance trend, “Decisions” could very well continue its streaming ascent. – KYLE DENIS

Waking Up ‘Tomorrow’: Weeknd Film Boosts Streams for Album Tracks

Four months after The Weeknd unveiled Hurry Up Tomorrow — his first album since 2022’s Dawn FM, which still stands as the biggest No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 chart so far this year — the pop superstar released a companion film of the same name last weekend. Co-starring Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan, the full-length feature finds The Weeknd portraying a fictionalized version of himself in a psychological thriller that he also co-wrote and co-produced. 

After the project hit theaters last Friday (May 16), some of the album tracks featured in the film benefited on streaming services: the title track, for instance, earned 294,000 U.S. official on-demand streams in the film’s first four days of release (May 16-19), up 42% from the same four-day period during the previous week, according to Luminate. “Gasoline” experienced an even bigger bump, up 48% from 152,000 streams from May 9-12 to 226,000 streams from May 16-19. While “Timeless,” The Weeknd’s hit single from the album alongside Playboi Carti, is back in the top 20 of the Hot 100 this week — helped by its new Doechii-featuring remix — these streaming bumps give him a few more options for follow-up singles as the Hurry Up Tomorrow campaign continues. – JASON LIPSHUTZ

Bankroll Ni Notches ‘ATL’ Another Viral Rap Hit 

Between Yung LA’s “Ain’t I” and BunnaB’s “Bunna Summa,” Atlanta rap is having a moment on TikTok. ATL Mc Bankroll Ni is continuing that trend with the aptly titled “I’m So ATL.” 

Aided by a simple dance trend that compiles moves from other 2025 dances and finds users “swimming” and “eating,” “I’m So ATL” has quickly taken over socials, with everyone from Latto and Da Brat hopping on the trend. Originally released on April 18, the song pulled 94,000 official on-demand U.S. streams in its first week of release (April 18-24), according to Luminate. The following week (April 25-May 1), streams rose over 200% to 285,000 streams, and the week after that (May 2-8), they jumped a further 90% to over 543,000 streams. During the week of May 9-15, streams for “I’m So ATL” — which apparently refers to both the city of Atlanta and the phrase “about that life” — rose another 51% to over 822,000 streams, making for a 771% lift in streams over the past four weeks. 

Although the official TikTok sound is currently down, “I’m So ATL” is sure to continue its TikTok domination through unofficial sounds. – KD

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