Kendrick Lamar may be a tad behind his biggest competitors in Drake and Kanye West, but that doesn't make this feat any less impressive. This week, the Compton native surpassed 1 billion total streams on Spotify just two months into 2026 per Kurrco.
Ye narrowly beat him to this mark, eclipsing the number last week. Drake was the earliest to the party (as he usually is), doing so in roughly three weeks' time. Apparently, he's already at the two billion (and counting) mark as of the first several days in February.
With each superstar hitting such a level already, though, the race for the most streams at the end of 2026 will be exciting. That's especially true due to the fact that each rapper is either rumored, projected, or confirmed to be dropping an album this year.
Ye seems to be the only "confirmed" artist as BULLY is seemingly releasing on March 20, 2026. Now, given all of the delays for this tape, this could certainly be another placeholder date to keep fans' interest. But thanks to some industry folks adding some level of assurance to this March timeline, Ye feels like the biggest guarantee so far (shockingly).
There's also potential for a Travis Scott collab tape, and that is gaining more momentum as of late.
Next is Drake who has his supporters clamoring for ICEMAN. Given the title and the rollout for this solo tape, many believe it's going to drop sometime during the winter. However, that theory is starting to lose steam with each passing day.
Winter officially ends astronomically on March 20, so he's running out of time in that regard. But even if he doesn't meet that expectation, we firmly believe that Drizzy's next solo release will make landfall sooner rather than later.
Is Kendrick Lamar Dropping Music In 2026?
Then, there's Kendrick, who we feel has the smallest chance to drop. But that doesn't mean that its essentially unlikely. For starters, we already know that he's contributing to what's been a stacked year already for rap with his feature on Baby Keem's forthcoming Ca$ino album that's dropping on Friday, February 20.
But there's also some chatter around more solo work from the most decorated MC in Grammy history.
In a clip from a recent DJ Akademiks stream, he said that he feels confident in speculating that Lamar has something serious brewing behind the scenes.
"If he drops this year, which I'm under good authority to [...] speculate that he has some things up his sleeve, and not just being on Baby Keem's album."
Part of Ak's guesswork probably stems from the chatter shortly after Kendrick's record-breaking night at the 68th Grammys. During the show, he wore a boxing hand wrap, which longtime collaborator Dave Free shared a closeup of on his Instagram.
Many fans believed this all but confirmed the beginning of his next era, although that remains a rumor for now.
