Stand under Rihanna‘s umbrella. “Work” might reign forever.
The lead single off Rihanna’s January album, ANTI, the Drake-featured “Work,” shot up to the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 just a couple weeks after its release, and it hasn’t budged since then. That’s right, this week “Work” is enjoying an eighth consecutive week in the Hot 100’s top spot, which makes roughly two months since something other than “Wor, wor, wor, wor, wor, work” held the coveted #1 slot. Many have tried, including Justin Bieber’s resilient “Love Yourself,” Lukas Graham‘s latest hit, “7 Years,” and more recently, Meghan Trainor‘s smash hit “No,” but they have all been unable to break through the impenetrable dance anthem, co-written by PARTYNEXTDOOR and produced by Boi-1da.
So who will be able to stop Rihanna? Though Trainor’s “No” didn’t budge this week (it finished at #3, both this week and last week), it’s got a decent chance at dethroning Rih, especially considering how quickly it ascended to its current top 5 standing. Drake’s brand new Views From The 6 singles, “One Dance” and “Pop Style,” debuted high–at #21 and #16 respectively–but neither is the quintessential Drake song fans were looking for to lead an album roll-out, and could experience a “Summer Sixteen”-ish drop-off next week (“Summer Sixteen” debuted at #6 the week of its release, and free-fell off the charts in subsequent weeks.) Who else has a shot? Maybe Lukas can swap spots with Queen Fenty? Possible, but unlikely.
Here’s an idea: “Panda.” Desiigner‘s best Future impression has taken the radio and internet by storm, and technically speaking, his hit has charted in two different places on the Hot 100 thanks to Kanye’s “Pt. 2”–which is part-Panda, part-Yeezy–clocking in at #54 this week. “Panda” has been on a tear since Kanye’s Pablo reveal at MSG, and its corresponding music video isn’t even out. The increased popularity of Kanye’s new album, The Life of Pablo, now that it’s been released to all internet retailers and streaming services, will only push “Panda” skyward, and within the next fortnight we could be looking at the new #1 song in the country. Crazy, ain’t it?
As far as the Billboard 200 goes, Kanye West made a bit of history this week with The Life of Pablo‘s #1 debut. Even though Pablo brought Kanye the most lackluster first-week sales mark of his career–just 94,000 equivalent album units–only 28,000 of those were pure album sales, meaning he pulled off 66,000 units off streaming alone, good for second-best all-time, just 1,000 units behind Justin Bieber‘s #1 debut, Purpose, at the end of last year. To boot, it appears we’ve arrived at the final edition of Pablo, as Kanye has “updated” songs like “Famous,” “Ultralight Beam” and “Wolves” in recent weeks. At the rate people are streaming the album, especially those that hadn’t heard it due to it not being available on their preferred streaming service, look for Ye’s new LP to hang around on the charts in the coming weeks.
Also of note on the Billboard 200, Big Sean and Jhene Aiko‘s joint effort, TWENTY88, debuted at #4 with 47,987 equivalent unites moved, which is somewhat of an impressive mark considering it was a TIDAL exclusive for the first four days of its release. Rihanna, Zayn Malik, Adele and Justin Bieber help populate the bottom half of the top 10, coming in consecutively from 6-9, while Kevin Gates lands just outside the top 10 at #11 with his January effort, Islah.
