One of the steadfast truths in Hip-Hop is that numbers don't lie, and with the latest report from HitsDailyDouble, fans can now see which artists have so far been excelling in the streaming game this year. According to XXL, Drake continues his reign over the music industry with over 3.6 billion streams in the six month period from January to June, and the next Hip-Hop artists to on the list are Juice WRLD and NBA YoungBoy, ranking in at #4 with 2.7 billion streams and #5 with 2.5 billion streams, respectively.
After NBA YoungBoy, the remainder of the top 10 is as follows, from top to bottom: The Weeknd, Rod Wave, Pop Smoke, Polo G, and Lil Baby. See the full ranking below.
According to XXL, the recent data ranking doesn't specify which tracks or albums that attributed to these streaming numbers, but seeing that many of the artists featured in the list have released music this year, it's not too hard to pinpoint where a bulk of those streams may be coming from. Drake, for example, released the popular three-pack Scary Hours 2 earlier this year, and his Lil Baby-assisted "Wants and Needs" was streamed over 200,000,000 times on Spotify alone.
NBA YoungBoy continues to surprise the music industry because the young rapper has managed to elbow his way into the top five streamed artists of the year, all without dropping a project. According to XXL, NBA's most-streamed song is his "Bandit" collaboration with Juice WRLD.
While the top 10 spots in the streaming ranking are dominated by Hip-Hop acts, the list gets a bit more varied as you go down. Eminem is followed by Lil Durk, J. Cole, Post Malone, and Moneybagg Yo in the positions between 11 and 19, with pop stars like Olivia Rodrigo, Justin Bieber, and Ariana Grande separating them.
Elsewhere in the list, Future, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, Pooh Shiesty, XXXTentacion, Travis Scott, Lil Tjay, Rihanna, Cardi B, NF, and Lil Wayne land in the 30s, and late rappers Mac Miller and King Von make the cut as well, ranking at #40 and #49, respectively.
Are you surprised to see how some of the biggest artists in Hip-Hop match up to each other in terms of streams this year?
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