Drake Surpasses Kendrick Lamar In Monthly Spotify Listeners After Beef

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TORONTO, CANADA - NOVEMBER 17: Rapper Drake sits court side during the second half of the NBA In-Season Tournament game between the Toronto Raptors and the Boston Celtics at Scotiabank Arena on November 17, 2023 in Toronto, Canada. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Cole Burston/Getty Images)
The 6 God is back on top.

Drake has had a bad summer. He lost the battle to Kendrick Lamar. He also had to sit around while Lamar's "Not Like Us" became the biggest song in the country. It played so many places that Steph Curry got tired of hearing it. Lamar was not only winning the discourse war, though, he was winning the streaming war as well. His numbers were up during the battle, while Drake's were noticeably down. The tables have turned, though. The 6 God is regaining his footing in a post-"Not Like Us" world, according to Spotify.

Hip Hop All Day confirmed that Drake reached a major milestone on August 9. The rapper notched 74.9 million monthly listeners on Spotify. This made him the rapper with the second-most monthly listeners on the entire platform. More importantly, though, it meant he surpassed Kendrick Lamar. K. Dot had been on a role throughout May and June. He accrued 74.7 million monthly listeners during the beef. As noted by a Billboard article, the success of Lamar's diss songs actually boosted streams for his previous albums as well. The Compton emcee's entire catalog was up 49% from May 3-6. Drake's conversely, was down by 5%.

Drake Has The Second Most Monthly Listeners For A Rapper

The damage the battle did to Drake's credibility is one thing. The damage the battle did to his streaming numbers, however, is another. Meaning, it didn't do much damage. He's still one of the most artists in the world, as evidenced by colossal numbers he's doing on Spotify. Eminem is the only rapper who has more monthly listeners that Drake. Tellingly, Eminem is the only rapper who has sold more albums that Drake in terms of physical units. That being said, the 6 God has Slim Shady in the overall streams department. Em recently reached 50 billion overall streams on Spotify, which made him the second rapper to do so. Want to guess the first? You're correct. Drake stands atop the Spotify all-time streams list with an eye popping 101 billion streams.

It gets better for Drizzy. The Toronto superstar recently broke another Spotify record. According to That Grape Juice, Drake became the first artist in history to have 17 individual songs pass one billion streams. "Jimmy Cooks," the rapper's number-one single from 2022, was the one that pushed it over the edge. He was previously tied for the Spotify record of 16 songs with Rihanna and Bad Bunny, but know he stands alone. And it sounds like new Drake music is right around the corner.

About The Author
Elias is a music writer at HotNewHipHop. He joined the site in 2024, and covers a wide range of topics, including pop culture, film, sports, and of course, hip-hop. You can find him publishing work for HNHH from Monday to Friday, especially when it comes to the coverage of new albums and singles. His favorite artists are Andre 3000, MF Doom, pre-808s Kanye West and Tyler, The Creator. He loves L.A. hip-hop but not L.A. sports teams. The first album he ever bought was Big Willie Style by Will Smith, which he maintains is still a pretty good listen.
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