4, to the fatherly saga “ Duckworth” at No. 1, all of the other 13 tracks on Damn debut on the Hot 100-from the Don Cheadle–video–supported “ DNA,” at a lofty No. Indeed, the same week “Humble” takes the final lap to No. Two years after the widely acclaimed To Pimp a Butterfly and one year after an album of Lamar outtakes managed to top the chart, Kendrick is now as fully established a superstar as Sheeran, Drake, the Weeknd, or Justin Bieber-acts who drop new albums and see every track on them materialize somewhere on the charts. This helps explain how a Kendrick single that even critics are lukewarm about coasted to No. But these two solo male stars’ debuts were just variations on a theme: Fans were primed for whatever first single each of them dropped and flooded in to consume it immediately. True, Sheeran had earlier, easier radio acceptance and bigger initial download sales, while Lamar opened bigger on streaming services, typical for a rapper in the age of Spotify and Tidal.
1–debuting “Shape of You” launched in January-presold to an army of acolytes. 3–debuting “Humble” opened in April much the way Sheeran’s No. (When streams and tracks are factored in, Lamar’s 603,000 total album “units” beat the corresponding Sheeran figure, 451,000, by an even larger margin.) As for the Hot 100, Lamar’s No. That total topped Ed Sheeran’s first-week sales for ÷ aka Divide-the year’s prior best opener-by about 10 percent. It started on the album chart, where, according to Billboard, Lamar’s Damn opened with sales of 353,000-those are traditional CDs or full-album downloads, not streams. This is two music-biz megastars entering their respective imperial phases and battling for chart dominance. (And no, I’m not talking about their shared devotion to hip-hop.) This is not a case of an underdog rapper defeating a radio-friendly pop star. 1, and while airplay for “Humble” is still lagging, Billboard reports it is starting to catch up.Įxcept here’s the thing: As pop entities, Kendrick and Ed have a ton in common right now.
Heavy streaming of that new album powered the song to No. 1 in this, its third chart frame, the same week Lamar’s new masterwork Damn (officially styled DAMN.) debuts atop the Billboard 200 with the biggest album debut so far this year. (He did top the Hot 100 once before as a featured artist, on Taylor Swift’s “ Bad Blood,” though Swift’s overly busy music video made K-Dot feel like window dressing.) That first week, “Humble” had greater digital sales and streams than any track on the chart only modest radio play in its first week kept Lamar from debuting in the top slot. 2, instantly becoming Lamar’s highest-charting hit as a lead artist. When it materialized earlier this month, “Humble” slammed onto the Hot 100 all the way up at No. Yet “Humble” stormed to the top of the Hot 100 in three short weeks, and it nearly did it in one. But no one’s lining up (yet) to generate Twitter yuks à la the ones inspired by Migos’ “ Raindrops-drop top” or even the respective “Challenges” currently keeping Future’s “Mask Off” and Lil Uzi Vert’s “XO Tour Llif3” in the Top 10. 1 for the Atlanta producer, after Rae Sremmurd’s 2016 smash “ Black Beatles.” But unlike that Mannequin Challenge–fueled chart-topper, no social fad is behind the ascension of “Humble.” The song’s chorus does have a repetitive, meme-worthy mantra, “Bitch, be humble/ Sit down,” and at one point Kendrick even taunts, cryptically, “ My left stroke just went viral,” all but daring the interwebs to meme-ify him. That hook comes courtesy of Michael “Mike Will Made-It” Williams, making “Humble” the second No. Instead, he made a tight, sub–three-minute single-a rapper’s exercise in efficient bars delivery, with a thumping 808 beat and an infectious piano hook.
It’s not like Kendrick Lamar made it easy on himself-he didn’t rely on the usual performance-enhancing tricks of a dance craze or a viral gimmick to propel “ Humble” to the top of Billboard’s Hot 100. He’s now calling himself “ Kung Fu Kenny.” But who knew the greatest rapper alive would pull a Carl Douglas and actually hit the top of the pops?