Grammys
Kendrick Lamar had a big night at the 2025 Grammys on Feb. 2, winning in all five categories he was nominated in with his smash single and video “Not Like Us.” Lamar could be headed for another big Grammy night next year. He could become the first solo male rapper to win album of the year, for his sixth solo studio album, GNX. The only rap artists to win in that category to date are Lauryn Hill, in 1999 for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, and OutKast, in 2003 for Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.
If Lamar wins three Grammys, he would tie Jay-Z for the most career Grammys won by a rapper (25). If he wins four, he’ll set a new record (unless Jay also adds to his Grammy collection). The standings among rappers are currently: Jay-Z (25), Ye, formerly Kanye West (24) and Lamar (22).
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As we noted in a previous post, if Lamar wins record and/or song of the year for either “Luther” or “Squabble Up,” coming on the heels of his wins in those categories with “Not Like Us,” he’ll make history. He would become the fourth artist to win back-to-back awards for record of the year, following Roberta Flack, U2 and Billie Eilish, and just the second songwriter to win back-to-back awards for song of the year. D’ Mile won in 2021 for co-writing H.E.R.’s “I Can’t Breathe” and in 2022 for co-writing Silk Sonic’s “Leave the Door Open.”
If Lamar wins best rap performance, that would be his eighth victory in that category, extending his lead as the artist with the most wins there.
But Lamar could make history even before the Grammys are presented next year. If GNX is simply nominated for album of the year – which seems almost certain – Lamar would make Grammy history. He would set these records. (The years shown are the years of the Grammy ceremonies.)
First Rapper to Land Five Album of the Year Nods as a Lead Artist
Lamar was nominated for album of the year for good kid. m.A.A.d. city (2014), To Pimp a Butterfly (2016), DAMN.(2018) and Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers (2023). If he is nominated for a fifth time, he would pull ahead of Ye, who has received four album of the year nods as a lead artist – for The College Dropout (2005), Late Registration (2006), Graduation (2008) and Donda (2022).
First Black Male Artist to Land Five Album of the Year Nods as a Lead Artist
If he is nominated for a fifth time, he would become only the second Black artist to receive five album of the year nods as a lead artist. Beyoncé was nominated for I Am…Sasha Fierce (2010), Beyoncé (2015), Lemonade (2017), Renaissance (2023) and Cowboy Carter (2025), winning for the latter album. This would obviously make Lamar the first Black male artist to achieve this feat.
As noted, Ye has received four album of the year nods as a lead artist. Black or biracial artists who have received three album of the year nods as a lead artist are Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, H.E.R. and André 3000 (counting two albums with OutKast).
First Solo Artist to Be Nominated for Album of the Year With Five Consecutive Studio Albums
Lamar would become the first solo artist – from any genre – to be nominated for album of the year with five consecutive studio albums. Donald Fagen was nominated for album of the year with five consecutive studio albums — but that combined solo albums and albums he recorded as half of Steely Dan. He was nominated with Steely Dan’s Aja (1978) and Gaucho (1982), then his first two solo albums, The Nightfly (1983) and Kamikiriad (1994), and finally Steely Dan’s Two Against Nature (2001), which won. He issued no other studio albums in those years, so these five nominated albums were consecutive releases.
We need to quickly add that album release patterns were very different in the 1960s. Artists often had multiple albums in one year. In that era, it’s best to look at consecutive years with an album of the year nomination instead of consecutive studio albums to be nominated.
The Beatles are the only act in Grammy history to receive a Grammy nomination for album of the year in five consecutive years. They were nominated for the Help! soundtrack (1966), Revolver (1967), Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1968, which won), the Magical Mystery Tour soundtrack (1969) and Abbey Road (1970).
Barbra Streisand was nominated for album of the year in four consecutive years. She was a contender for The Barbra Streisand Album (1964, which won), People (1965), My Name Is Barbra (1966) and Color Me Barbra (1967). People competed in 1965 with the original cast album from Streisand’s Broadway triumph, Funny Girl. (That nomination went to the composers of the score.)
The eligibility period for the upcoming 68th Grammy Awards will end on Aug. 30. This is the second year in a row that the eligibility period has closed on that date. The eligibility period extends from Aug. 31, 2024, to Aug. 30, 2025. The Grammy eligibility year ran from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 every […]
Elton John and Brandi Carlile’s new collaborative album Who Believes in Angels?seems to have a good shot at a Grammy nomination for album of the year. Carlile was nominated in the category with both of her last two solo studio albums – By the Way, I Forgive You (at the 2019 ceremony) and In These Silent Days (2023). John was nominated three times in his 1970s heyday, with Elton John (1971), Caribou (1975) and Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1976).
Who Believes in Angels? was produced by Andrew Watt, who won a Grammy for producer of the year, non-classical in 2021 and was nominated for album of the year the following year for his work on the deluxe edition of Justin Bieber’s Justice.
What’s more, Ben Winston, one of the executive producers of the annual Grammy telecast, also served as an executive producer of An Evening With Elton John and Brandi Carlile, which aired on CBS on Sunday April 6. Does that give the album an edge in the Grammy voting process? No. But it shows that it’s front-and-center in terms of Grammy consciousness.
It may seem early to be thinking in terms of Grammy nominations, but it’s actually not all that early. We’re more than seven months into the Grammy eligibility year, which runs from Aug. 31, 2024 to Aug. 30, 2025.
If Who Believes in Angels? receives an album of the year nod, John will have a 55-year span of nominations in that category, which would put him in second place on the list of artists with the longest span of nods in that category. Tony Bennett has the longest span – 59 years from I Left My Heart in San Francisco (a nominee at the 1963 ceremony) to Love for Sale, his collab with Lady Gaga (a nominee at the 2022 ceremony). Ray Charles would fall to third place. His nods span 43 years, from Genius + Soul = Jazz (1962) to Genius Loves Company (2005).
Who Believes in Angels? is vying to become the 12th collaborative album to receive a Grammy nod for album of the year. It would be the third pairing where one artist was a generation older than the other. John is 35 years older than Carlile. There was a 60-year age gap between Bennett and Gaga; a 23-year age gap between Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.
You may have noticed that John’s double-album opus Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, widely regarded as his most classic work, was not listed among his nominees for album of the year. You may be wondering: How can that be? The album was released on Oct. 5, 1973, just 10 days before the end of the eligibility year, a bit late for it to register its full impact. John was nominated the following year with Caribou, a solid album, but not in the same league with Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. While Goodbye Yellow Brick Road should have been nominated, it probably wouldn’t have won. Stevie Wonder, then at his creative and commercial peak (and on a history-making Grammy roll), won that year for Innervisions.
Here’s a complete list of the 11 collaborations that have received album of the year nods, working backwards. Will Who Believes in Angels? join them? Place your bets. All chart references are to the Billboard 200; the years shown are the years of the Grammy ceremony.
2022: Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga, Love for Sale
Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for LN
Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. sent a letter via email to all Recording Academy members on Wednesday (April 2) sharing a report that the academy created and quietly posted on its website in January. In the report, the academy attempts to quantify its impact and summarize the changes it has made over the five years since Mason stepped into the top job at the organization (initially as interim CEO following the departure of Deborah Dugan).
“While many people know us as just an awards granting institution, we are actually a purpose-driven impact organization serving music makers and aspiring music makers around the world 365 days a year,” Mason wrote in his letter. … “This Grammy Impact 2024 report puts into one place all the ways the Recording Academy positively affected music people last year.”
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In an interview with Billboard, Mason shed further light on his aims with the report, which takes the form of a slick and visually appealing deck brimming with facts and figures. But Mason says the numbers aren’t the point. “To me, the bottom line is that they get a sense that the academy is making a real impact on the lives of music people beyond just giving trophies,” he says. “What I’m trying to do is hopefully build support for the academy, through seeing it maybe through a different lens, rather than just who got snubbed or who won or who didn’t win. That’s the objective of this report.”
Mason has long tried to get people to see the academy as more than just the dispenser of shiny gramophones. “When I took the role, one of my objectives and goals was to heighten the awareness of what happens the other 364 days of the year,” he says. “I did experience a lot of interaction with music people in studios as I was coming up where people just thought of the Grammys as a night to get an award, whereas I was always encouraging them to see the bigger picture; to see all the service work that’s being done; the advocacy, the education, the philanthropy, MusicCares; all the different parts of the academy.
“A lot of people know and love the awards ceremony,” he continues. “I’m thankful for that, but it is a challenge for us as an organization to tell the larger story as to why we exist. [This report is] a new way of positioning the academy. We needed to do a better job of explaining why the academy exists beyond to celebrate one night a year. So, this was an intentional effort for us over the last few years to make sure we’re telling that story in a new way.”
Perhaps the most eye-popping statistic in the deck presentation is one that was already reported in the academy’s 2024 membership report, which was released Oct. 3 and reported in Billboard that same day: That a whopping 66% of current academy voting members have joined since 2019.
“It’s great [in the] sense in that we are continuing to remain relevant,” Mason says, “to attract new music-makers, people who are at the height of their careers, or coming into their careers, and we are moving away from having people who have been members…” Mason pauses and starts anew. “We always want to keep our long-term members, but we want to make sure they’re continuing to qualify as voting members [by being able to show recent credits]. We don’t want people that have had music careers in the 1960s or ’70s still voting on music that maybe they’re not involved in making, so we’re making sure we’re refreshing the membership; making sure the membership’s relevant to professionals in the industry working today.”
The deck also includes the statistic, also first reported in the membership report, that people of color now constitute 38% of the voting membership. “I’m pleased with the progress,” Mason says. “We still feel like we have some room to go. You think about why are these numbers important: Why do you care about changing the make-up of our membership? It’s mostly because we want to make sure our membership reflects the industry.”
Mason says he has no set points in mind as to when the academy will have achieved its membership goals. “We’ll never be done, because these numbers are going to fluctuate,” he says. “They’re going to adjust based on what’s happening in our community, in music; changing based on genre popularity, so we’re going to be in a constant search to perfect our membership. We’re always going to continue to work and tinker with the numbers because we have to remain relevant. I don’t think we’re where we want to be yet. I’m not sure we’ll ever accomplish the perfect membership, but we will continue to [work on it].”
At this year’s Grammy Awards, artists and songwriters of color won three of the four highest-profile awards: album of the year (Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter) and record and song of the year (Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us”). Does Mason see that as a reflection of the academy’s overhaul of its membership?
“Not necessarily,” Mason says. “I see it as a reflection of the quality of their individual work. I like to think having a relevant membership — regardless of their race — is probably what gives us the best outcomes, but I think those people had amazing years creatively and our voters recognized that.”
The deck also repeats the stat that the Recording Academy has added more than 3,000 women voting members since 2019, surpassing its 2019 goal to add 2,500 women voting members by 2025. Women now make up 28% of the voting membership.
“We really needed to increase the number of women voters,” Mason says. “A great first step is adding 3,000 new members. We’re not [yet] where you want to be.”
The deck also speaks to the academy’s “bold global expansion, working with stakeholders in Africa and the Middle East to help foster the dynamic music markets there.” (The academy first released this information on June 9.)
Asked why that effort is a priority for the U.S.-based academy, Mason replies, “Obviously, a big focus is on our American members, and it will continue to be that. We are an organization that represents music all around the world. If we’re going to do that, we have to have people that represent those genres. It very much can be said in the same way about Latin music: Why do you care about Latin music? Why did you build a Latin Academy? It’s because the music is very popular. It’s a thriving music community and it continues to affect people as they listen to it and consume music, and the same can be said for other parts of the world.
“We are not living in a time when music only comes from American creators,” he continues. “Music is coming from creators all around the planet. As a group that serves music people and hopefully uplifts music people, we want to be able to do that for people regardless of where they’re from. As long as they’re making music, we want to have an impact on those music groups.”
Here’s Mason’s letter to the academy membership in full:
Academy members,
I am writing today to share an exciting report that we recently created. You frequently hear me say that music is a powerful force for good in the world, and that the people who make it deserve an organization dedicated to their well-being. I feel so incredibly privileged to work for the organization that exists to do that.
But our highest purpose isn’t merely to serve music creators, it’s to make a positive impact on their lives and careers. And that’s exactly what we work to do, every single day of the year, through the tireless and amazing effort of our board and our teams.
While many people know us as just an awards granting institution, we are actually a purpose-driven impact organization serving music makers and aspiring music makers around the world 365 days a year. Every piece of legislation we help pass has a tangible impact on the music people we serve. Every event hosted by a chapter or wing, every dollar distributed by MusiCares, every scholarship we provide, and every time we open the Grammy Museum doors to a child, it impacts our music community. And yes, every Grammy nomination and award alters the trajectory of someone’s life and career.
This Grammy Impact 2024 report puts into one place all the ways the Recording Academy positively affected music people last year. As we say in the report, it is the combined work of the more than 300 dedicated employees of the Recording Academy, the Latin Recording Academy, the Grammy Museum, MusiCares, and thousands of music creators who volunteered their time in service to their peers.
Please take a moment to read through the report, and reflect on the ways you and your colleagues personally contributed to these outcomes. I hope you feel a sense of pride and purpose in what was accomplished, and for the role you play every day in serving the music people who rely on us.
Of course, we’re now into 2025, and while we celebrate the achievements of last year, we are also looking ahead to the impact we will make this year and beyond. Grammys on the Hill is right around the corner, the Day that Music Cares is coming soon, and much more awaits us in the months ahead.
Thank you for your ongoing commitment to our work. It is making a lasting impact.Gratefully,Harvey Mason jr.
Kendrick Lamar & SZA’s old-school R&B smash “Luther,” now is in its fifth week atop the Billboard Hot 100, sounds like a natural to receive Grammy nods for record and song of the year when the nominations for the 2026 awards are announced later this year. The song, a nod to R&B legend Luther Vandross, contains a sample of Vandross and Cheryl Lynn’s 1982 rendition of “If This World Were Mine,” which was originally recorded in 1967 by another legendary pair, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell. Its multi-format success in 2025 shows that old-school R&B songwriting values can still be embraced in today’s hip-hop-dominated R&B culture.
But while “Luther” may find favor next year with Grammy voters, Vandross had to wait nine years from his first Grammy nominations in 1982 until he finally won. His Grammy track record stood at 0-9 until he finally scored a W with “Here and Now,” which was voted best R&B vocal performance, male in 1991.
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Vandross was nominated for best new artist at the 1982 ceremony, but lost to Scottish pop singer Sheena Easton (who got off to a faster start, with a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, “Morning Train (Nine to Five),” and another top five hit with the Oscar-nominated James Bond theme “For Your Eyes Only”). More surprisingly, Vandross was nominated for best R&B vocal performance six times before he finally won in that category. That’s striking because Vandross is regarded as one of the premier R&B male vocalists of his time, and of all time.
Vandross, who suffered a severe stroke in 2003 and died in 2005 at age 54, won four Grammys during his lifetime. He won four more in the year following his death, including song of the year for “Dance With My Father,” which he co-wrote with Richard Marx.
Vandross isn’t the only R&B veteran who had to wait a good long while to finally win a Grammy. Gaye, who both wrote and recorded the original version of “If This World Were Mine,” had to wait even longer (15 years from the time of his first nomination) to win his first Grammys in 1983. His Grammy track record stood at 0-8 before he finally won best R&B vocal performance, male for his smash “Sexual Healing” and best R&B instrumental performance for an instrumental version that appeared on the B-side of that smash. Tragically, he was killed by his father less than 14 months after his belated double-Grammy triumph.
Vandross and Gaye have nothing on Lionel Richie, whose Grammy track record was a dismal 0-18 before he finally won best pop vocal performance, male, for “Truly,” also in 1983. Richie went on to win album of the year (for Can’t Slow Down) and song of the year (for “We Are the World,” a co-write with Michael Jackson), so we tend to think of him as Grammy royalty, but he had to wait a long while to be admitted to the club.
Lamar’s “Squabble Up” is also a strong candidate for Grammy nods in marquee categories. If either “Luther” or “Squabble Up” wins record or song of the year, coming on the heels of his wins in both categories on Feb. 2 with “Not Like Us,” Lamar would make Grammy history. He would become the fourth artist to win back-to-back Grammys for record of the year (following Roberta Flack, U2 and Billie Eilish), and only the second songwriter to win back-to-back Grammys for song of the year (following Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II, who won for co-writing H.E.R.’s “I Can’t Breathe” in 2021 and Silk Sonic’s “Leave the Door Open” the following year).
The nominations for the 68th annual Grammy Awards are expected in November. The ceremony is expected in February 2026.
Chappell Roan is receiving some love from Lady Gaga — and the feeling is mutual.
In a recent interview with The New York Times, Gaga — who released her seventh album, Mayhem, on Friday (March 7) — was asked about Roan’s powerful acceptance speech at the 2025 Grammy Awards, where she advocated for record labels to support up-and-coming artists by providing them with livable wages and healthcare.
“I think Chappell Roan is speaking the truth, and she is courageous to do so,” Gaga said. “I look at what she’s been doing and saying and think, ‘Man, I should have stood up for myself more when I was younger.’ I think women speaking their mind is a powerful thing, and I was really happy she did that.”
On Saturday (March 8), the “Pink Pony Club” singer took to social media to thank Gaga for the shout-out and returned the compliment with a message of her own.
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“Thank you @ladygaga I love you + your album so much
Beyoncé had yet another groundbreaking night at the 2025 Grammy Awards earlier this month, where the superstar was at last awarded her first win in the album of the year category, thanks to Cowboy Carter. Bey’s shocked reaction has since become a hilarious meme, and her mother Tina Knowles was just as surprised by the […]
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Source: Jeff Kravitz / Getty / Kanye West
Kanye West and his Twitter fingers aren’t done typing. The rapper took to his favorite soapbox at the moment, X, formerly Twitter, to complain about the Grammys not giving him and his wife, Bianca Censori, tickets.
West had all the smoke for the Recording Academy for not blessing him and his naked wife, Bianca Censori, with tickets to music’s biggest night despite him earning a nomination for his song “Carnival” featuring Ty Dolla $ign, but eventually losing to Kendrick Lamar who took home the Grammy for his iconic Drake diss, “Not Like Us.”
“How could the Grammies [sic] nominate me Then not give me tickets And then people mad when I go off,” Ye wrote on X.
“I had to fight for 5 hours and call everyone I knew to get tickets to the Grammies [sic] They eventually gave me tickets but only for the red carpet. At that point I hadn’t started the rampage.”
The Grammys Confirm Not Giving West Tickets
According to a Grammys producer, the rapper (47) and his mannequin (30) were not given tickets to attend the Feb 2 award show held inside the Crytpo.com arena.
“They didn’t have a nomination on the [telecast] and Kanye wasn’t presenting,” Raj Kapoor told People. “He was not performing either, which is mostly what those seats are.”
The “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” crafter didn’t need to make it inside to cause a scene. He used his time on the red carpet to continue parading around his naked wife. Censori dropped her fur coat to reveal she wore a sheer dress with nothing underneath it.
Rumors hit the web that the couple was kicked out of the event due to Censori’s lack of clothing, but that was not the case. A source told Page Six that they left on their own accord.
Kanye West Has Been Dominating The Headlines
West has been dominating the headlines with his antisemitic rants on X, his bizarre Super Bowl ad that led potential shoppers to a Nazi shirt, and rumors of his wife divorcing him.
A rep for the rapper shot down claims of West and Censori splitting.
“Announcements about their private life will come from them directly, not unsourced rumor in the tabloid press,” spokesman Milo Yiannopoulos said.
We honestly wouldn’t mind if West, who claims he is now autistic, would go away and get some damn help.
Brat Summer has extended deep into awards season. Charli XCX’s Brat is competing for a Brit Award for British album of the year on Saturday (March 1), just weeks after it competed in the Grammy race for album of the year. Brat is the first album to be nominated for the top album honor on […]
The rap feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake has broken out beyond the hip-hop world so that now even the mainstream media is all over it and keeping score, thanks to Lamar winning record and song of the year at the Grammys for his Drake diss track “Not Like Us” and his performance a week later at the Super Bowl Halftime Show.
While it’s unclear how this is all going to play out, music industry label executives know that rap feuds, in general, are good for business — as long as they don’t go too far.
As it is, Lamar’s high-profile performance is landing him the most ink, which in turn is driving plenty of business his way. It’s only five weeks into the year as tracked by Luminate, and already his recorded music catalog is closing in on 1 billion on-demand streams in the U.S., which it will probably reach next week; while his global streams are heading toward 2 billion. As of the week ending Feb. 6, those counts stand at 862.8 million (U.S.) and 1.69 billion (globally), according to Luminate. Overall, Lamar’s catalog has accumulated nearly 664,000 album consumption units in the U.S. in 2025 so far.
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That’s nearly three times larger than during the same period in 2024 when Lamar posted 233,000 album consumption units and almost 301 million on-demand streams in the U.S. and global streams of 650 million. Of course, besides his high-profile TV appearances this year, Lamar’s streaming and sales activity is still enjoying an added boost from riding in the afterglow of his recently released GNX album on Nov. 22.
But is all this attention also helping Drake? It’s unclear. Drake is slightly trailing Lamar in terms of U.S. album consumption units and streaming in 2025 so far. Album consumption units came in at 620,000 units, or 7.1% short of the Compton rapper; while his total of nearly 834 million on-demand streams is 3.5% below Lamar’s U.S. total and his global total of 1.529 billion is 10.3% short of his musical rival’s.
Besides that, Drake’s 2025 performance is also down from how his catalog performed in the first five weeks of 2024, when he accumulated 930,000 album consumption units; and, within that, 1.281 billion streams in the U.S. Those 2024 numbers are 50% and 53.6% greater, respectively, than his U.S. activity in 2025 during the same period; while his 2024 global on-demand stream total was 2.246 billion, or nearly 47% greater than this year.
Drake, of course, does not have the added momentum of having released a new album at the end of 2024. (He is releasing his PartyNextDoor collaborative EP, Some Sexy Songs 4 U, this Friday.) Not only that, his current year’s numbers are competing against his prior year’s numbers which did have that benefit thanks to the afterglow of his eighth studio album, For All the Dogs, which was released on Oct. 6, 2023.
Still, the above numbers do not reflect the impact that Lamar’s Super Bowl performance is having on the activity of his and Drake’s catalogs. Those numbers, for the week ending Feb. 13, won’t be available from Luminate until Monday (Feb. 17).
This is all short-term, of course. Looking at the two artists’ career numbers, Drake swamps Lamar, even though the “Just Like Us rapper” has pretty impressive counts in his own right. Over the past 10 years, Drake has gone toe-to-toe with only Taylor Swift in claiming the title of the biggest artist in the U.S., if not the world, at least as far as recorded music activity goes.
Drake and Lamar’s first commercial releases came out within about a year of each other. Drake’s debut album, Thank Me Later, hit the streets in June 2010, while Lamar’s Section 8.0 album came out in July 2011. Since then, Drake has issued eight albums and Lamar six, and each has also released mixtapes, EPs, collaborations and/or compilations and soundtracks.
By the end of 2024, Drake’s catalog has accumulated nearly 80.7 million album consumption units in the U.S., versus Lamar’s 29.1 million album consumption units, according to Luminate. In fact, the combined activity of just three of Drake’s studio albums alone is higher than Lamar’s total, as each of those albums — Take Care, Scorpion and Views — have garnered slightly over 10 million album consumption units a piece. Meanwhile, Lamar’s best album showings come from his major-label debut good kid, m.A.A.d city, with 9.3 million album consumption units, and DAMN, at nearly 9 million units.
(These career numbers exclude collaborations where most of the collaborators are each considered a primary artist but do include songs where artists are “featured” on a Drake or Lamar song because Luminate credits those songs’ activity to just the primary artist. Album consumption units count each album sale as one album consumption unit; while track equivalent albums, whereby 10 tracks sold equal one album consumption unit; and stream equivalent albums, whereby 1,250 paid subscriber streams equal one album consumption unit, or 3,750 ad-supported streams equal one album consumption unit. Also, Luminate only tracks album consumption units in North America; globally, it only tracks streams and downloads, not album consumption units.)
Within the album consumption unit numbers, Drake’s streaming total in the U.S. is 84 billion and 127 billion globally, as of the Luminate year ended Jan. 2, 2025. Meanwhile, Lamar’s U.S. career streaming total is nearly 29 billion and more than 47 billion globally.
Those numbers are extremely impressive given that 2015 was the first year in which streaming’s impact was widely felt. While huge rock stars, not counting pop artists, are lucky to break the 1 billion on-demand streams milestone in the U.S. each year — and none of them yet appear to have broken the 2 billion mark in the U.S. in a single year — these days, R&B and hip-hop artists regularly hit the multi-billion on-demand stream mark each year — usually led by Drake.
Over the past five years — from 2020 to 2024 — Drake’s U.S. streams have totaled 46 billion, for an annual average of 9.2 billion streams, while globally he’s averaged 15.9 billion streams per year. In contrast, Lamar’s U.S. stream count during that same period averages 3.29 billion, while his annual global count averages nearly 6.4 billion streams. Any way you cut it — by album consumption units or by stream count — Drake’s activity over the course of his career, or even just within the 2020 to 2024 period, is more than twice that of Lamar’s.
So even though Lamar is the top dog this year when measured against Drake’s activity, it remains to be seen if this rap feud changes the dynamics of whose swagger — Drake’s, the reigning champ, or Lamar’s — can be backed up long-term. Only time will tell.