Drake, who has arguably taken Kanye West’s spot as pop music’s most popular but controversial artist, has had a year that many artists would dream of in their career. He currently is in possession of a four times platinum album in Views, a highly successful tour called the “Summer Sixteen Tour,” and lastly, has been a part of two of this year’s most popular singles; “Work” which he played the feature role to Rihanna and “One Dance.” The former spent nine weeks on top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart and has been nominated for Record of the Year for the 2017 Grammy’s. The latter spent ten weeks at number one on the Hot 100 chart and arguably was the quintessential song of the summer. But according to Billboard , “One Dance” is Spotify’s music streaming service most popular song ever, in which it has now reached over one billion plays; the first song in their history to do so.
“The year of Drake continues, as Toronto’s finest has just racked up a new record, becoming the first artist to reach one billion plays on Spotify for a single track with his smash “One Dance.” The titanic tally clicked over this week (sitting at over 1.001 million as of press time), giving Drizzy yet another trophy to hang on the wall in 2016. The news came just days after Drake took all three top spots on Apple Music’s year-end charts, with his Views album besting Rihanna’s ANTI, Adele’s 25 , Frank Ocean’s Blonde and Justin Bieber’s Purpose to lead Apple’s Top 25 Albums chart.”
Although Drake is frequently critiqued for ghost/co-writing allegations, his track record and career trajectory still points to Drake being pop and hip hop music’s most popular artist and elite songwriter. Though “One Dance” is his first number one as the primary artist, it’s his third number one overall counting his two number one records being featured on Rihanna’s “What’s My Name” and the aforementioned “Work.” Drake’s songwriting skills, whether featured performer or primary artist, has earned him many accolades all 2016. He’s also been nominated for eight Grammys, along with being one of the top artists of 2016 via the Billboard chart.
“Drake’s dominance in 2016 has been reflected in Billboard’s year-end charts. The Toronto rapper lands at No. 3 on Billboard’s Top Artists chart and is the only rapper to even crack the top 10; Future is his closest competition, coming in at No. 12.
“The OVO leader tops 24 of Billboard’s year-end charts and reigned supreme in most of the rap categories. Drake was No. 1 on charts like the Hot 100 Artists, Streaming Songs Artists, On-Demand Songs, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Rap Albums.”
Not to mention, he’s also Apple Music and Spotify’s most streamed artist of 2016.
“Take a bow, Drake . The Canadian rapper has capped a phenomenal 2016 by taking the top spot in all three of Apple Music’s year-end charts.”
“Drake’s success on the charts should come as no surprise. The man put up astounding numbers in 2016. The “Hotline Bling” artist was Spotify’s most streamed artist for the second year in a row, racking up 4.7 billion plays on the streaming service. That surpassed his 1.8 streams in 2015 by a wide margin. Both years helped Drake top Spotify’s all-time leaderboard with 8.7 billion streams.”
Drake’s 2017, if meticulously planned like his previous few years, could be just as good as 2016. He has a project/playlist coming up titled “More Life” and he has several other rumored projects to be released via collaborations with Kanye West and Gucci Mane. Whichever of the three comes first, crafty records particularly aimed for the charts should be expected by the pop star. Drake’s writing skills have shown as of right now he’s second to none. We can only hope to keep witnessing Drake’s ascension into music’s mythical hall of fame class by the time he slows down recording.
[Featured Image by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images]
