Those still doubting whether or not Post Malone has solidified himself in rap's upper echelon should be silenced now, as his new 21 Savage-assisted single "Rockstar" has broken Apple Music's streaming record for a single by garnering over 25 million plays in its first week. Produced by Louis Bell and Tank, it looks to be the first pre-released track off Post's upcoming album Beerbongs and Bentleys, his sophomore effort, which is due out later on this year. It makes sense that he'd be the man to break the high-water mark set by DJ Khaled with "I'm The One," as Apple has consistently supported Posty over the years, ever since he first burst onto the scene with "White Iverson."
“We just have a long history of supporting Post Malone, even before he got signed,” Carl Chery, Apple Music’s head of curation, told The Verge. “‘White Iverson’ was being heavily supported in iTunes—that song is old enough that Apple Music wasn’t even live yet. We were supporting him heavily back then, and we did the same thing with the Stoney project last year. The process is pretty simple for us, if we like it, we support it.”
56% of the song’s first week streams in the U.S. came via Apple Music, as per the report details from The Verge. Front and center placement on three key Apple Music playlists that cater to their rap demographic (The A-List, It’s Lit, and #OnRepeat) also helped the song's profile grow significantly over the past few days. Initially rumored as a challenger to Cardi B's "Bodak Yellow" to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, industry forecasters now predict the song will debut somewhere in the Top Five when Billboard releases its chart info later on this week.
The accomplishment is all the more impressive when you consider how few paid subscribers Apple Music has versus their competition, with only 27 million subscribers and 133 million less than Spotify. “A lot of times on those records where we outperform is because we’re ahead of the curve on them," Chery said. Apparently, he heard "Rockstar" before it was released and saw the enormous potential right away. After that, he and Apple moved fast and added it to the right playlists to give it the proper amount of exposure. “And to a point, Apple Music becomes the destination where people want to hear that particular record,” he added. Check out the song here.