Chart Beat
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Billboard Japan released its 2024 mid-year charts last week, and Creepy Nuts’ viral hit “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” topped the all-genre Japan Hot 100 list compiled from six metrics.
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The catchy rap banger was featured as the opening theme song for the TV anime series MASHLE season 2, which premiered in January. Along with the infectious dance moves of the anime’s opening clip, the hip-hop hit gained overwhelming support from listeners, mainly through TikTok and streams.
The popularity of the song spilled over from Japan to other countries, and the track spent 19 straight weeks atop the Global Japan Songs Excl. Japan tally — the longest consecutive streak at No. 1 on this chart. This puts the viral hit atop the mid-year tally for this and numerous other rankings for an unprecedented total of 13 No. 1s.
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The tremendous momentum that propelled “BBBB” up the charts was something that the pair, rapper R-shitei (“R-rated”) and DJ Matsunaga, never anticipated. The two spoke about their long-running hit in this mid-year chart-topper interview and shared their common mindset of enjoying what they never imagined.
Congratulations on “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” topping 13 charts including the Japan Hot 100 and Global Japan Songs Excl. Japan charts on Billboard Japan’s 2024 mid-year reports. Tell us how you feel about these accolades.
R-shitei: I wasn’t expecting it at all, so I’m surprised, or rather… It still hasn’t really hit me yet. But I’m thankful. It’s gratifying.
DJ Matsunaga: The song became a hit when I was working at my own pace, in a kind of “I’ll just take it slow and have fun making music” mindset, which highlighted the unexpectedness of it all. I’m at a place where it’s all too much of a blessing and I haven’t been able to take it in. [Laughs]
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R-shitei: We weren’t trying to break out overseas at all, either. I’ve always thought that our style of music… my rapping in particular, is super-native, the type of rap that’s interesting only to those who understand the Japanese language. Of course I do want to make rap music that’d be awesome to listen to even for those who don’t understand the language, but I thought that Japanese was the crux of my rapping. I’ve never really considered tailoring my style to fit international audiences.
That’s interesting. Along the lines of what R-shitei just said about his verses, your tracks sound really “Japanese” as well. Could you share your thoughts on this, DJ Matsunaga? I have a feeling “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born,” even with its Jersey club beat, would have turned out differently if, say, an American track maker had produced it.
DJ Matsunaga: Well… Our stance is, “Let’s make something we’ve never heard before.” The thing is, there’s no reference when we’re mixing our songs, so I often find it hard to convey what I’m aiming for to the engineer. There are no similar songs.
R-shitei: [To Matsunaga] When a song we’re working on turns out to be something that doesn’t exist elsewhere, it feels worth it, doesn’t it? We feel the greatest sense of accomplishment when we create a type of song not found anywhere else in the world… In the U.S. or any other foreign country.
DJ Matsunaga: I made the sound of that track based on my own ideas… The combination of Latin and Jersey club music was rare. Plus, not just one but a number of things I’ve adopted and have been inspired by are included in a track. I mix them together and then my habitual hand movements are added to the mix. I also mess around a lot when I make each song, waiting for an “accident” (unexpected turn of events) to happen. We have other Jersey club-inspired songs with a feel for chord progression besides “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born,” but none of them have such a solid riff.
Lyrically, “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” and “Nidone” were written as tie-ins for an anime and drama series, respectively, and while both include content inspired by those works, they don’t end there, which I think is brilliant. Do you start assembling the lyrics after being tapped to work on a project?
R-shitei: Basically, yes. But looking back at our songs written as tie-ins up to now, because of hip-hop as an art form, I end up singing about me. And I want to sing about me, it’s harder not to. Both “Nidone” and “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” were written so that they end up being about me, even though they’re linked to other works. In fact, when I work on a tie-in, instead of conforming to the source material, I take the theme or the worldview of the original work and then ask, “So, what about me?” I write lyrics that I can ultimately shoulder to the end as something that pertains to myself. That’s basically how I’ve always done it.
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By the way, did you routinely check music charts, including those other than Billboard Japan, before “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” became a hit?
DJ Matsunaga: No, I never really looked at the charts. I’ve looked at streaming charts and the like for the purpose of checking out new music, but honestly never thought I’d ever look at the charts from the viewpoint of a participant.
R-Shitei: I used to think that charts didn’t have anything to do with me. Seeing ourselves alongside people like Taylor Swift and 21 Savage makes me go, “Come on, this must be a lie that some junior high kid who just started rapping came up with.” [Laughs]
The week when “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” reached No. 2 on Billboard’s Global Excl. US chart, Taylor was at No. 5, Miley Cyrus was at No. 6, and and Ye (Kanye West) & Ty Dolla $ign were at No. 10. [Week of Feb. 24, 2024]
R-shitei: I thought, “That’s insane!”
DJ Matsunaga: Really. It’s not like we weren’t thinking, “Damn, Kanye’s new album came out at the same time!” [Laughs]
R-shitei: If some younger rapper were saying that, you’d tell them to cut it out, wouldn’t you?
DJ Matsunaga: I sure would. [Laughs]. I’d be like, “Come on, man, cool it.”
Your songs have been appearing on the upper tiers of the Japan charts since “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” became a hit, and the public’s expectations for new songs seem to be growing rapidly. Could you share your future plans in terms of new music?
DJ Matsunaga: The next song we’re releasing is already done. The song we’re writing next will be… Well, this is completely subjective, but it’ll be aggressive, and we’ll focus more on points like, “We’ve learned a new way of doing things,” “We’ve updated ourselves,” and “We’ve come up with another song that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world” when we’re working on it. I wonder what kind of song it’ll turn out to be?
Oh, so you don’t know what to expect, either?
R-shitei: But that’s what we hope will happen. We’re happier when we come up with something that’s not like what we’re imagining now.
DJ Matsunaga: Yeah, that’s so true. It’s not much fun just taking what we’ve imagined, what’s done in our minds, and making a clean copy of it in reality.
R-shitei: It’s more fun when it’s like, “Whoa, this is how it turned out?!”
DJ Matsunaga: That’s so true. The fun part is that the two of us can definitely make that happen by playing catch with each other. I’m sure we’ll be able to make things that we can’t imagine now. All of our new songs will be like that.
Creepy Nuts is set to perform at South Korea’s Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival 2024 in August. This will be your first performance outside of Japan after “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born” became a hit. Is there anything you’re looking forward to?
R-shitei: I’m not looking forward to anything much, but we will try to do our best and are considering what to do.
DJ Matsunaga: For sure. But I think that’ll be so much fun. When we were starting out as a duo, we didn’t even have our own songs, so every show was like an away game. The process of trying to gain fans by all possible means was really rewarding and fun. And now, thankfully, we’re performing more and more in places we’ve been before where there are a certain number of people who’ve heard our songs, so I’m really grateful to be able to take on such challenges again from square one at this timing and at my age, when I’ve experienced various things to some extent.
Are you willing to expand your activities globally in the future?
R-shitei: I’d love to. I want to go to various places, to various countries to do shows. I haven’t been outside of Japan much in my daily life to begin with, so being able to go with our music in tow will give us something in return, you know? I’m really looking forward to seeing if and how the things we express will change.
DJ Matsunaga: Yes, I’m willing. It’s the same in Japan, but if you listen to hip-hop from overseas, there really aren’t many artists these days who do engaging shows with just rapping and DJing.
R-shitei: I know, right?
DJ Matsunaga: All I can say is that we’re really grateful that that’s the case. [Laughs] So it’s exciting to be able to take our style and go out in front of people who’ve never heard our music before.
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Lastly, a lot of songs from Japan that rank high on global charts, including “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born,” tend to be a blend of Japanese and Western styles, or have some Japanese elements to them. As a duo that has taken pride in exploring Japanese rap throughout its career, could you tell us how you face the Japanese language and elements of Japanese-ness in your music?
R-shitei: I don’t face it, but rather, it turns out that way when I do things naturally. Personally, the first thing I listened to was rap by Japanese artists. When I try to do something that’s fun and feels good to the max in a natural way, elements of Japanese style are probably going to surface no matter what. And I think that’s good, so it just overflows without my thinking consciously about it. The things I’ve absorbed by being born and raised in this land are being outputted.
I also look forward to how something I’ve never seen before will come about as I change through other influences. Of course, I do think about using and studying various languages, but in the end, the language that suits me best is the language of my own country. As for my rapping, I don’t think that will change much.
DJ Matsunaga: When you look at the Japanese music market, there are many templates. Themes, sounds, chord progressions, and all other aspects of a song can be said to be “designed for the Japanese charts.” If you make a song based solely on the J-pop model, the range of expression becomes extremely limited. Plus, that J-pop model is incompatible with the sound production and songwriting of hip-hop, so I’ve completely given up, or rather abandoned, the idea of creating songs that will perform well on the domestic charts.
I want to use everything properly — my own sensibilities, new things I’m constantly absorbing, styles unique to Japan, overseas trends. But I think songs sound catchier when there are fewer notes. In any case, I want people to listen to rap music. I think it’s absolutely true that the voice is the catchiest instrument. With that in mind, I design my tracks in a very conscious way.
I see now that the blend of Japanese and Western styles and the sonically Japanese elements in Creepy Nuts’ music are the products of both of your personalities.
DJ Matsunaga: Yes. Well, highlighting R’s Japanese may be a big factor, because he raps in a way that makes the Japanese come across in a solid way. And yet his flow is freakier than those who break down the language to make it sound more like English.
R-shitei: I want to rap to different beats and also want to try out various ways of playing with Japanese. A big part of rap is about how much you can play around with language, so I’ve always wanted to create something good by manipulating the words I see as someone who has lived a normal life instead of forcing myself to use U.S.-like phrases.
DJ Matsunaga: Polishing up our songs while maintaining that and seeing how much they resonate with people who don’t know Japanese at all is what makes it worthwhile.
—This interview by Maiko Murata first appeared on Billboard Japan
A new Cardi B remix adds a serious jolt to GloRilla and Megan Thee Stallion’s “Wanna Be,” sending the rap collaboration rebounding up the Billboard Hot 100 and multiple other charts (dated June 15) following the first tracking week for the new version, which was released May 31.
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In the May 31-June 6 tracking week, according to Luminate, “Wanna Be” generated 19.7 million official U.S. streams – its biggest streaming yet and a 51% increase from the previous week, sparking its 35-15 ascent on the Streaming Songs chart. The single sold 13,000 downloads in the same period, up 6,210%, prompting a No. 4 re-entry on the Digital Song Sales list. (It reached Nos. 9 and 1 on the respective charts upon its debut on rankings dated April 20.)
“Wanna Be” also registered 7.1 million airplay audience impressions, a 115% week-over-week improvement. Although it’s as yet below the 50-position threshold for the all-genre Radio Songs chart, the single’s gains reap rewards on format airplay charts: It darts 36-17 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart (up 113% in audience to 5.9 million) and debuts at No. 37 on Rhythmic Airplay.
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Thanks to the increases for all three metrics, “Wanna Be” rockets 39-15 on the Hot 100, which blends streaming, sales and airplay into its calculations. The collaboration nears its peak of No. 11, achieved upon the song’s debut. Additional jumps occur on both the multimetric Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts, which use the same methodology as the Hot 100. “Wanna Be” rebounds 11-5 on the former to match its peak rank and 9-4 on the latter, earning a new best showing. (All versions of the song are rolled up into one listing for tracking purposes and chart ranks. Cardi B is not listed on “Wanna Be” on the June 15-dated multimetric charts, as the remix did not account for the majority of the song’s overall consumption during the tracking week, although she is listed on radio charts, as the new remix is already responsible for the bulk of its airplay; such decisions are reviewed each week upon compilation of updated data.)
Plus, streaming and sales consumption for “Wanna Be” in both its original and remixed forms helps the track’s parent album, GloRilla’s Ehhthang Ehhthang, rally on the albums charts. The set, released in April (which includes the original GloRilla and Megan Thee Stallion version), drives 47-23 on the all-genre Billboard 200, with 23,000 equivalent album units earned May 31-June 6, a 35% gain from the previous week. Further, the project’s 13-4 surge on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart unlocks a new peak, while it returns to its highpoint on Top Rap Albums with an 11-3 advance.
Somewhere along the way, the concept of pop stardom got severely warped. The 2010s – an absolutely mind-boggling decade that we’re still trying to figure out – brought about a bevy of pop stars and pivots that prioritized not just a banal understanding of “relatability,” but also a specific kind of feigned honesty and vulnerability. In an effort to stoke the increasingly parasocial connection between consumers and creators, pop stars packaged up “refreshingly honest and vulnerable” lyrics that didn’t actually say much at all about their authors and sold them in more variants and configurations than there are editions of the Merriam-Webster dictionary. The obsessive curation of the relatable pop star threatened to completely swallow up the reckless bombast and brash provocation of pop’s most gifted and most imported auteurs – until Charli XCX’s superb sixth official studio album, Brat.
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As an artist who has helped steer the evolution of pop over the past decade and change – while sporadically reaching some of the most staggering commercial heights of pop stardom (Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers, Grammy nominations, smash soundtrack singles) – Charli XCX has always been miles ahead. Now that the top 40 world has mostly caught up with her – think Beyoncé’s “All Up in Your Mind” (2022) or Camila Cabello’s “I Love It” (2024) — an album like Brat feels remarkably accessible. Nonetheless, at least half of that accessibility comes by way of Charli’s own maturation; Brat finds her finally embracing the full scope of her specific brand of pop stardom, not through cynicism or snark, but by genuine self-reflection soundtracked by some of the boldest and most audacious production pop music has heard in years.
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“I went my own way and I made it/ I’m your favorite reference, baby,” she begins the album by proclaiming, on delicious pure-pop opener “360.” The opening oscillating synths immediately situate the LP’s sonic universe as the soundtrack to the video game that is life – specifically the high-octane lives of hot girls, party girls and, of course, pop stars. On “Club Classics,” she dubs herself as such and demands to dance to her own music in the club, and on lead single “Von dutch” she reminds us – and herself – that she’s our “No. 1.”
For an artist who’s often been incredibly frank about her insecurity regarding where she stands (and how she’s perceived) in the pop ecosystem, these songs could read as Charli trying to convince herself of her greatness. In reality, she’s always believed those things, but those sentiments are just one component of her self-understanding. Being a hot girl pop star is terribly messy business, and as Brat barrels through its 15-song tracklist, Charli completely submerges herself in those murky, ever-troubled waters.
Brat is filled with homages to rambunctious late ‘90s French dance music, as Charli searches for the biggest and brightest sounds pop can offer, and those sonic touchpoints are vital to the album’s success. “All this sympathy is just a knife/ Why I can’t even grit my teeth and lie?/ I feel all these feelings I can’t control,” she sings in the chorus of “Sympathy Is a Knife,” the album’s third track and first taste of the nuanced examination of pop stardom Charli emarks on throughout the album. On the Gesaffelstein-helmed “I Might Say Something Stupid,” she feigns contentment with being “perfect for the background”; “Girl, So Confusing” finds her coming to terms with empty lip service from peers that only exacerbates how out of place she feels; and “I Think About It All The Time” introduces motherhood as a very real path for her, one that’s truly beckoning her attention – for better and for worse – for the first time.
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These moments where Charli opens up on a whim are as disarming as they are charming – and they never contradict the flashier come-hither anthems like “Talk Talk.” The negative connotations of the word “brat” are paramount to the album’s tone, but if a “brat” is to be understood as a poorly behaved child, then Charli sources her childlike tendencies by feeling the full extent of all of her emotions – more of a skill than most realize, and one that many people lose as they transition to adulthood.
Brat reaches its emotional apex with “So I,” a downright heartbreaking ballad dedicated to the late SOPHIE, a pop and dance music pioneer and frequent collaborator of Charli’s. “When I’m on stage sometimes I lie/ Say that I like singing these songs you left behind/ And I know you always said, ‘It’s okay to cry’/ So I know I can cry, I can cry, so I cry,” she coos, her slightly hoarse voice hanging on by a thread as a tidal wave of tears threatens to wash the rest of the song away. Charli hasn’t ever sounded like this on a record; this is the vulnerability that we’ve been sold facsimiles of for the past decade in pop.
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Of course, Charli is able to display this level of nuance in her vocal performance because the LP’s sprawling soundscape – which features contributions from forward-thinking producers such as El Guincho, A.G. Cook, Cirkut, George Daniel and Omer Fedi – allows her the space to. Whether it’s the heartbeat-nodding throbs of “Everything Is Romantic” or the electro-jazz breakdown in the back half of “Mean Girls,” Charli is granted an entire sonic galaxy to stake her claim over.
Six studio albums and several seminal projects since she first hit the scene over a decade ago, Charli seems to have finally found herself, while charting limitless futures for dance and pop music in the process. We hear so much about how pop music tends to cast aside its leading ladies once they hit their 30s, but a now 31-year-old Charli is only getting more indispensable. She is pop music – in all of its glorious sleaze and self-doubt and sex and somber introspection. And personifying the totality of pop while synthesizing it into some of her most evocative work yet reveals more about who Charli is than any amount of faux-diaristic, needlessly verbose lyrics could anyway.
Eminem’s “Houdini” magically appears at No. 1 in its first week on both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts. It becomes the rapper’s first leader on the lists, which began in September 2020.
“Houdini” is additionally the first song to debut atop Global Excl. U.S. and the U.S.-based Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts. One other track has led the three rankings, although it didn’t enter at No. 1 on them: Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red,” last year.
The Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts rank songs based on streaming and sales activity culled from more than 200 territories around the world, as compiled by Luminate. The Global 200 is inclusive of worldwide data and the Global Excl. U.S. chart comprises data from territories excluding the United States.
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Chart ranks are based on a weighted formula incorporating official-only streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of audio and video music services, as well as download sales, the latter of which reflect purchases from full-service digital music retailers from around the world, with sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites excluded from the charts’ calculations.
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“Houdini” launches atop the Global 200 with 121.4 million streams and 72,000 sold worldwide May 31-June 6. The streaming sum marks the highest in a single week for a title that has also hit the Hot Rap Songs chart, besting the 118 million that Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” drew three weeks earlier.
Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” holds at its No. 2 Global 200 high; Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby” drops to No. 3 after two weeks at the summit; Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help,” featuring Morgan Wallen, descends 3-4, three weeks after it debuted at No. 1; and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” returns to its No. 5 best from No. 6.
On Global Excl. U.S., “Houdini” debuts at No. 1 with 73.3 million streams and 23,000 sold outside the U.S. May 31-June 6. As on the Global 200, the song’s streaming total is the highest in a single week for a track that has also reached Hot Rap Songs; it passes the 64.9 million logged by Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red” on the Oct. 7, 2023, chart.
Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” slides to No. 2 following four weeks at No. 1 on Global Excl. U.S.; FloyyMenor and Cris Mj’s “Gata Only” holds at its No. 3 high; and Billie Eilish rounds out the top five with two tracks: “Birds of a Feather” flies 11-4, surpassing its prior No. 9 peak reached two weeks earlier upon its debut, and “Lunch” falls to No. 5 after spending its first two weeks on the chart at No. 2.
The Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts (dated June 15, 2024) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow, June 11. For both charts, the top 100 titles are available to all readers on Billboard.com, while the complete 200-title rankings are visible on Billboard Pro, Billboard’s subscription-based service. For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help,” featuring Morgan Wallen, notches a fourth total and consecutive week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. The song, Post Malone’s sixth leader and Wallen’s second, is the first to spend at least its first four weeks on the chart at No. 1 since Miley Cyrus’ […]
Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department scores a seventh straight and total week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated June 15), as the set earned 148,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending June 6 (down 16%), according to Luminate.
Poets is the first album to spend its first seven weeks at No. 1 since Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time led for its first 12 weeks a year ago (March 18-June 3, 2023-dated charts). Among Swift’s collection of 14 No. 1s, Poets surpasses Folklore for the most weeks at No. 1 from its debut, as Folklore spent its first six weeks atop the list (before it slipped to the No. 5 spot in its seventh frame).
Of Swift’s No. 1s on the Billboard 200, Poets matches Red for her fourth-most weeks on top. Ahead of them are 1989 and Fearless (each with 11) and Folklore (eight).
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Meanwhile, Swift adds her 76th career week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, extending her record among soloists. (Elvis Presley has the second-most among soloists, with 67.) The total encompasses her 14 leaders. (She’s tied with Jay-Z for the most No. 1s among soloists.)
Also in the top 10 of the new Billboard 200, ATEEZ achieves its fifth consecutive, and total, top 10-charting effort as Golden Hour: Part.1 bows at No. 2, while Shaboozey lands his first charting album as his new release Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going launches at No. 5.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new June 15, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on June 11. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of The Tortured Poets Department’s 148,000 equivalent album units earned, SEA units comprise 120,000 (down 10% — it’s No. 1 on Top Streaming Albums; its SEA units equal 157.26 million on-demand official streams of the deluxe edition’s 31 songs), album sales comprise 27,000 (down 35%) and TEA units comprise 1,000 (down 22%).
ATEEZ achieves its fifth consecutive, and total, top 10-charting album on the Billboard 200 as Golden Hour: Part.1 debuts at No. 2 with 131,000 equivalent album units earned (the largest week of 2024 for any K-pop album). Of that sum, album sales comprise 127,000 (the year’s biggest sales week for a K-pop album; it’s also the top-selling album of the week; it’s No. 1 on Top Album Sales), SEA units comprise 4,000 (equaling 6.15 million on-demand official streams of the set’s six songs) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. The album’s first-week sales were supported by its availability across 31 CD variants, all containing branded paper merch and other collectibles.
Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft slips 2-3 with 117,000 equivalent album units earned (down 19%). With the top three titles on the Billboard 200 each exceeding 100,000 units earned for the week, it’s the second week in a row that the top three have all cleared at least 100,000. The last time that happened was on the Oct. 28- and Nov. 4, 2023-dated lists.
Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time is a non-mover at No. 4 on the new Billboard 200 with 71,000 equivalent album units earned (down 3%).
Shaboozey’s third album, Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going, debuts at No. 5 on the Billboard 200, marking the first chart entry from the artist. The set was ushered in by the smash single “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” which has reached No. 3 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on Hot Country Songs. The album earned 50,000 equivalent album units in its first week, and of that figure, SEA units comprise 39,000 (equaling 52.66 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 12 songs, largely powered by “A Bar Song”), album sales comprise 8,000 (it was only available to purchase as a standard digital download album) and TEA units comprise 3,000.
Wallen’s former leader Dangerous: The Double Album is a non-mover at No. 6 on the new Billboard 200 with 43,000 equivalent album units earned (down 4%), Noah Kahan’s Stick Season steps 9-7 (42,000; up 5%), Future and Metro Boomin’s chart-topping We Don’t Trust You slips 7-8 (40,000; down 6%), Gunna’s One of Wun falls 8-9 (nearly 40,000; down 6%) and Zach Bryan’s self-titled former No. 1 is stationary at No. 10 (36,000; down 3%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” scores its first Billboard radio crown as it reaches No. 1 on the Rhythmic Airplay chart dated June 15. The single, released on pgLang/Interscope Records/ICLG, climbs from the runner-up spot to lead the list as the most-played song on reporting U.S. rhythmic radio stations, according to Luminate.
The new champ registered a 22% surge in plays May 31-June 6. Thanks to the increase, the track claims the chart’s Greatest Gainer prize, awarded each week to the song with the largest vault in plays at the format.
“Not Like Us” was released May 4 amid Lamar’s feud with Drake. With the beef dominating hip-hop news cycles and pop culture at large, the track exploded instantly: It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, largely thanks to 70.2 million official U.S. streams in the corresponding tracking week – the highest weekly count for any hip-hop song in the last three years. In its first four weeks on the Hot 100, the track has yet to leave the top two.
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The fervor has translated into strong radio momentum for “Not Like Us,” which tops Rhythmic Airplay in just its fifth week on the list. It wraps the quickest climb, by weeks, to the summit since Jack Harlow’s “First Class” also completed a five-week run to No. 1 in May 2022.
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“Not Like Us” gives Lamar his sixth Rhythmic Airplay leader. Here’s a review of his collection:
Song Title, Artist, Weeks at No. 1, Date Reached No. 1“Humble.,” three, June 3, 2017“Loyalty.,” feat. Rihanna, one, Sept. 30, 2017“Love.,” feat. Zacari, one, Dec. 30, 2017“Pray for Me,” with The Weeknd, two, April 14, 2018“Like That,” with Future & Metro Boomin, four, May 18, 2024“Not Like Us,” one (to date), June 15, 2024
Elsewhere, “Not Like Us” repeats at its No. 5 best on the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, up 24% in weekly plays as it likewise captures Greatest Gainer honors. It also holds at No. 2 on Rap Airplay, again with the chart’s Greatest Gainer tag thanks to a 23% improvement in audience impressions.
Jelly Roll banks his fourth No. 1 in a row on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart as “Halfway to Hell” ascends to the top of the tally dated June 15. It rose by 16% to 33.2 million audience impressions May 30-June 6, according to Luminate. Jelly Roll (born Jason DeFord) co-authored the song with Jessie Jo Dillon, […]
Five Finger Death Punch extends its record streak of No. 1s on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, while featured artist DMX achieves a posthumous leader, as “This Is the Way” tops the June 15-dated survey.
The song is Five Finger Death Punch’s 11th straight Mainstream Rock Airplay No. 1, lengthening the longest streak of leaders in the chart’s 43-year history. The Ivan Moody-fronted band’s run began in 2018 with “Sham Pain.”
In all, Five Finger Death Punch boasts 15 No. 1s. That gives the band sole possession of the third-most in the chart’s history, breaking out of a tie with Foo Fighters and Metallica. Five Finger Death Punch first led in 2012 with “Coming Down.”
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Most No. 1s, Mainstream Rock Airplay:
19, Shinedown
17, Three Days Grace
15, Five Finger Death Punch
14, Foo Fighters
14, Metallica
13, Godsmack
13, Van Halen
12, Disturbed
As for DMX, “This Is the Way” is the late rapper’s first No. 1 on Mainstream Rock Airplay, logged in his first appearance on the tally. The track is a mashup of two songs, mixing vocals from his “The Way It’s Gonna Be,” released in 2009, and Five Finger Death Punch’s “Judgement Day,” from the band’s 2022 LP AfterLife.
DMX now sports two No. 1s on Billboard airplay charts. His previously ruled Rap Airplay for six weeks in 2000 with “Party Up (Up in Here).” He died of a heart attack on April 9, 2021.
Concurrently, “This Is the Way” holds at its No. 9 high on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart with 3.3 million audience impressions, up 24%, in the week ending June 6, according to Luminate. On the most recent multimetric Hot Hard Rock Songs chart (dated June 8, reflecting data over May 24-30), the single ranked at No. 14, after reaching No. 4 in April; in addition to its airplay, it earned 576,000 official U.S. streams and sold 1,000 downloads.
“This Is the Way” is on the deluxe reissue of AfterLife, released April 5.
“The idea of collaborating with DMX had been in discussion for years, and it was a long and winding road to turn this particular item on our wish list into reality,” Five Finger Death Punch guitarist Zoltan Bathory said in a press release announcing the song. “He was a lyrical warrior, a true original who spoke his mind incorruptibly. We have always viewed DMX as the metalhead of hip-hop because of his aggressive, raw and untamed style. He growled and snarled, aiming to rattle some cages – an attitude we share, as Five Finger Death Punch has always been drawn to the fearless and the real. It made all the sense in the world, but today this is more than just a song; it’s a salute to a legend, a way to honor DMX’s memory.”
AfterLife debuted at No. 1 on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart in September 2022 and has earned 276,000 equivalent album units to date.
Five Finger Death Punch is on tour in Europe through July, ahead of a return to the U.S. beginning in August.
All Billboard charts dated June 15 will update on Billboard.com Tuesday, June 11.
Nicki Nicole crosses off a new milestone thanks to her latest single, “Ojos Verdes,” released April 24 via Sony Music Latin. The song rises from No. 2 to lead the Billboard Argentina Hot 100 chart (dated June 8). Her second ruler of the year arrives seven weeks after “Una Foto” — with Mesita, Tiago PZK and Emilia — culminated its 10-week domination (chart dated April 20), the longest leading song of 2024.
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As “Ojos Verdes” lands at the summit it ejects “Bésame (Remix)” by Bhavi, Seven Kayne, Milo J, Tiago PZK, Khea and Neo Pistea from the summit: falls 1-4.
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While Maria Becerra’s “Iman (Two Of Us)” dips 5-2, Los Ángeles Azules secure their first entry of the year as “Perdonarte Para Qué?,” with Emilia, debuts at No. 3. The Hot Shot Debut of The week earns the Mexican group its third top 10, while the Argentinian singer collects her 16th.
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Fifteen-year-old Argentinian Valentino Merlo and Chilean band The La Planta join in the upper region thanks to “Hoy,” their first team-up which climbs 32 places, from No. 37 to No. 5. While The La Planta picks up its second top 10, Merlo’s “Tu Foto,” with Q’ Lokura, advances 13-6, for his second top 10 hit.
Above the top 30, Chilean Lewis Somes makes his first chart visit thanks to “Apaga El Cel,” his first collab with compatriot FloyyMenor, which joins at No. 29. Meanwhile ECKO, Los Turros and Doble P’s “Loquita (Remix)” rallies up 58 places, from No. 99 to No. 41 with the week’s Greatest Gainer honors.
Further, four more songs debut this week, starting with Tiago PZK who adds a 34th career entry with “Corazón” at No. 60. Cris MJ’s “Si No Es Contigo” bows at No. 77. The song earns the Chilean his second top 10 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart this week, following the eight-week domination of “Gata Only,” with FloyyMenor. Plus, NewJeans’ “How Sweet” opens at No. 79.
Lastly Trueno scores three simultaneous entries on the current chart: “The Roof Is on Fire” at No. 94, “Pull Up!” at No. 97, and “Real Gangsta Love” at No. 100, all stemming from his album El Último Baile released May 23 via Sony Music Latin.
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