Drake has just set a new milestone in the history of global music by simultaneously sweeping the 2 most prestigious Billboard charts (week as of May 30).
With a bold product release strategy, the Canadian superstar not only monopolizes the album front, but also officially surpasses the late legend Michael Jackson in the number of singles reaching the Champion position.
In the Billboard 200 album chart, Drake recorded a new record when a total of 12 music products appeared simultaneously in one week. This result helped him become the first active solo artist, and also the only hip-hop artist to date to own such a large number of simultaneously charted albums.
This dominance was driven by the landing of a trio of new albums released simultaneously on May 15, including "Iceman", "Habibti" and "Maid of Honour". The three projects respectively held the Top 1, Top 2 and Top 3 positions in the first week of release, an unprecedented feat since Billboard adopted the weekly chart format in 1956.
In which, the leading record "Iceman" earned revenue equivalent to 463,000 album units converted (unit compiled from hard drive sales, downloads and streams) in the US market in just 7 days. This achievement brought Drake his 15th No. 1 album in his career, equaling Taylor Swift's record for number 1 album for a solo artist.
The heat from new projects also created a resonance effect, stimulating demand for the entire old record portfolio (the entire collection of music works released in the past) of the male rapper. This chain effect brought 9 previous albums released by Drake to simultaneously go against the trend and rise again on the Billboard 200.
Over the entire history of this chart, Drake is currently ranked 3rd in the number of albums appearing in a week, after the late artist Prince (19 albums in 2016) and The Beatles group (13 albums in 2014). In terms of active solo artists alone, he has surpassed Taylor Swift's previous record (11 albums) to exclusively take the top spot.
Drake's storm of achievements continues to spread and leave a big mark on the Billboard Hot 100 single chart. The latest song named "Janice STFU" (in the album "Iceman") excellently debuted at No. 1. This milestone marks the 14th No. 1 single in the male rapper's career, officially bringing him past the late legend Michael Jackson (13 songs) to become the male solo artist with the most singles to reach the top of the Billboard chart in American music history.
According to data from Billboard, "Janice STFU" reached No. 1 thanks to collecting more than 40.7 million online listens, 2.1 million audience reaches through the radio system and recording 3,000 legal downloads in the first week.
The comprehensive explosion from this trilogy album project pushed a total of 42 Drake songs simultaneously to the Hot 100 chart, breaking Morgan Wallen's record for the number of songs appearing in the previous week (37 songs).
At the same time, this milestone also made Drake the first artist in music history to reach the milestone of more than 400 songs ever appearing on the Billboard Hot 100 chart throughout his career.
This week's iconic streak once again confirms Drake's maximum commercial stats in the digital music era, extending the male rapper's unprecedented record streak in Billboard's prestigious charts.
