Summer ’16: Drake’s ‘One Dance’ Set Record for Most Weeks Atop Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Won Song of the Summer Honors & More

A look back at Drake’s scorching summer, and more, on the charts.

For months, he’s just been too good.

As previously reported, Drake’s “One Dance,” featuring WizKid and Kyla, claimed the title of top song of the summer, having outperformed every other hit on the Billboard Hot 100between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

“One Dance” also made history on Billboard‘s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, where it reigns for a record 18th week (on the chart dated Sept. 17). On the Sept. 10 tally, the track bested the command of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines,” featuring T.I. and Pharrell, which led for 16 weeks in 2013. In third place, Mary J. Blige’s “Be Without You” ruled for 15 weeks in 2006.

(For the purposes of this research, and Drake’s record run at No. 1, data goes back to Oct. 20, 1958, when Billboard unveiled the first all-encompassing R&B songs ranking, aka, the present-day Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.)

With Drake having dominated summer ’16, here’s a look at 10 other honors he’s recently achieved.

•  Drake has led the Billboard Artist 100 chart for 21 weeks overall, the most among males. That’s second overall only to Taylor Swift’s 31 weeks on top (dating to the chart’s July 2014 inception).

•  Drake’s album Views has spent 12 total weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the most time in charge for an album by a male artist since Billy Ray Cyrus’ Some Gave All logged 17 weeks at No. 1 in 1992.

•  Views boasts the third-most total weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 ever for a hip-hop album. It trails only MC Hammer’s Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em (21 weeks, 1990) and Vanilla Ice’s To the Extreme (16 weeks, 1990-91). Notably, Views has led the Billboard 200 longer than any other hip-hop album since Nielsen Music data began powering the chart in May 1991.

•  Views has drawn more than 2.3 billion on-demand audio streams for its tracks in the U.S. (through Sept. 1), according to Nielsen Music. That’s the biggest streaming total ever for an album’s songs, and Views is the only album with more than 2 billion streams earned by its tracks. (The count includes plays by Views songs released before the album’s arrival, including “Hotline Bling.”)

•  “One Dance” and Views combined to give Drake the longest control, among solo males, of both the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 simultaneously with one song and one album: nine weeks. Drake passed Michael Jackson’s seven-week run of “Billie Jean” and Thriller leading both lists at the same time in 1983. Among all artists, Drake’s total is second only to the Whitney Houston’s 12-week stretch in 1992-93, which the late legend earned thanks to “I Will Always Love You” and the soundtrack to The Bodyguard.

•  Drake foreshadowed his steamy summer ’16 by making history on the Hot 100 May 21 (the week that Views bowed atop the Billboard 200), when he charted a record-breaking 20 titles on the Hot 100 at once, the most that any act has posted in one week.

•  Drake has linked the most consecutive weeks in the Hot 100’s top 10 among all male artists: 51 (and counting!), as of the Sept. 17 chart. Only Katy Perry, with 69 straight weeks in the top 10 in 2010-11, has scored a longer streak.

•  Drake has totaled a record 17 No. 1s on Billboard‘s Hot Rap Songs chart. Puff Daddy is second with 10. Drake also has earned a record 53 top 10 hits on Hot Rap Songs. Lil Wayne ranks second, with 42. Drake’s latest Hot Rap Songs leader is the chart’s current topper “Too Good,” featuring Rihanna, which has spent three weeks at No. 1 (through the Sept. 17 chart).

•  Drake has earned 51 top 10 hits on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Since his first, “Best I Ever Had,” debuted on May 2, 2009, the runner-up has roughly half that sum, as Lil Wayne follows with 28 in that span.

•  Drake is close to becoming the soloist with the most entries ever on the Hot 100. He’s up to 126, trailing only Lil Wayne, who has 132. Among all acts, they are bested only by the cast of Fox’s Glee, with 207.

Perhaps he’s saving those superlatives, and likely others, for fall ’16, and beyond.

Source: billboard.com