Source: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz
Kendrick Lamar’s verbal war with Drake is boosting his streaming catalog numbers and whittling his rival’s own down.
According to reports, the heated battle between Kendrick Lamar and Drake is carrying over to streaming as the former’s catalog is outpacing the other. The battle between Kendrick Lamar and Drake saw Lamar issue four tracks beginning with “Euphoria” which entered the Billboard Hot 100 charts at number 11 and garnered 27.6 million audio demand streams from May 3 to May 6 according to Luminate. “Not Like Us”, the infectious and scathing diss track that’s now become a club anthem, had 21.1 million streams since its debut on May 4, with the incisive “Meet The Grahams” earning 8.8 million streams so far. “6:16 in L.A.”, the second of the tracks, hasn’t hit streaming platforms yet. This also includes Kendrick Lamar taking the number one streaming status in Drake’s home country of Canada, standing at number one on Apple Music’s Top 100 chart as well as Spotify’s Daily Top Songs Canada chart.
Going further, removing the diss tracks only highlights how many listeners are tuning in to hear Kendrick Lamar’s music. During that same four-day period, his discography attained 50.62 million streams, showing a 49% increase from the same period the previous week. In comparison, Drake’s overall catalog streaming numbers took a hit once his response tracks, “Family Matters” and “The Heart Part 6” were removed from the equation – the data shows the streams at 100.7 million from May 3-6 as opposed to 105.9 million from Apr. 26-29. That represents a 4.9% drop.
While Drake can be okay with the fact that his overall streaming numbers still outpace Kendrick Lamar’s with twice as many, the recent hit has reflected a distinct turn against the Toronto superstar. Other streaming numbers that stand out are tied to the rise of “BBL Drizzy,” a song that producer Metro Boomin used for an instrumental to fire back at Drake after the rapper called him out in response to the “Like That” track with Future and Kendrick Lamar that he appeared on. R&B legends Teddy Pendergrass and Al Green also saw an uptick in their streaming numbers as a result of the feud, with the former’s “You’re My Latest, Greatest Inspiration” hit from 1981 saw a boost of 76% in streams from Apr. 26-29 (76,000) to May 3-6 (134,000) due to it being sampled in “Euphoria”. Green’s “What A Wonderful Thing Love Is” from 1972 saw a 283% rise in streams after its usage in “6:16 In L.A.”.
