YoungBoy Never Broke Again was proof that rappers, or any artists, could gain their following on YouTube and stick to using the platform after they achieved fame. While every artist uses YouTube for music videos, YoungBoy would frequently drop music exclusively to YouTube, and his cult fanbase knew it was the primary app to use to stay tapped in to his releases.
On Saturday (Nov. 27), NBA YoungBoy's YouTube page was inexplicably wiped, purged of all videos. The page had over 9 billion views combined, and housed basically his entire catalog.
This news comes just days after his "safe then sorry" YouTube-exclusive release, which was momentarily trending as the No. 1 video in the Music category on YouTube.
It is not known currently whether or not this decision was made by YoungBoy himself, his label or YouTube, but it surely is a travesty for all YB fans. YoungBoy's YouTube fanbase helped him to become one of hip-hop's most streamed in artists.
In a report by XXL from the summer, it was revealed that NBA YoungBoy was the fifth most streamed artist 0f 2021 of any genre in the country with 2.5 billion streams.
This fanbase is what helped him to go No. 1 this fall with his Sincerely, Kentrell album in September. This was his third year in a row with a Billboard 200 No. 1 album, and likely came due to his success on YouTube.
In 2019, YB comfortably sat on the throne as "Top Male Artist" on YouTube for months, doubling the amount of streams as streaming giants like DaBaby and Post Malone. Now, he has no videos on the site.
Perhaps there is a grand scheme to restore these videos, or maybe YB is changing is entire approach to releasing music. Either way, YoungBoy's videos leaving the platform leaves an empty throne for the King of YouTube.