Topline
The song “Million Dollar Baby” by rapper Tommy Richman debuted at No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart and held high positions on Apple Music and Spotify’s charts, cutting through the noise of songs born from over a decade-long rap beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, and the success of Taylor Swift’s new album.
Key Facts
The song made its Billboard Hot 100 debut on Monday, landing the No. 2 spot right after Taylor Swift and Post Malone’s “Fortnight,” which is spending its second week at No. 1; all but one of Swift’s 31 songs on her new album “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology” hold a spot on the chart.
Richman released “Million Dollar Baby” on April 26 after teasing the song for two weeks on TikTok, where the first snippet he posted on April 13 has received over eight million views, and the song sits at No. 1 on TikTok’s Viral 50 chart.
As of May 7, the song is No. 4 on Apple Music’s Top 100 chart, and the other songs in the top five are disses between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, whose most recent rap beef saga has made waves on social media and on the charts.
Spotify’s Top 50 tells a similar story: “Million Dollar Baby” is No. 3 while the top two are “Not Like Us” and “euphoria,” both disses by Lamar directed at Drake.
Some are already calling “Million Dollar Baby” the song of the summer, and it received 16.6 million streams during the first four days of its debut, while Richman’s other songs saw a 106% gain in streams, according to Billboard, which used data from entertainment data company Luminate.
Its success on the charts may be due to the song’s popularity on TikTok, where the song has been used in over 148,000 videos, and has become the background music for several viral trends, like a new dance challenge, prom transition videos and the “Black wife/girlfriend effect,” which features videos of Black women showing off how their partners’ styles have evolved since the start of their relationships.
Who Is Tommy Richman?
Richman is an artist from Woodbridge, Virginia, a suburb outside of Washington, D.C., and some of his earliest music dates back to 2016, according to Complex. Last year, Richman became the first artist signed to singer Brent Faiyaz’s creative agency ISO Supremacy, a joint venture with PULSE Music Group. Richman opened for Faiyaz on his “F*** the World, It’s a Wasteland Tour,” before featuring on Faiyaz’s song “Upset” from his 2023 album “Larger Than Life.”
Surprising Fact
This is Richman’s first song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Its No. 2 debut is the highest entry by an artist with no previous record on the chart since last August, when Oliver Anthony became the first artist to debut at No.1 with no previous chart history with his song “Rich Men North of Richmond,” Variety reports.
Key Background
Lamar and Drake’s rap beef spans more than a decade, though this year’s installment involves almost 10 diss songs between the two. Lamar threw the first shot on March 22 while featuring on Future and producer Metro Boomin’s song “Like That,” where he denied claims that he, Drake and J. Cole were the “big three” of rap, an apparent response to Cole referring to the trio as such on Drake’s “First Person Shooter” in October. Since then, the two have made countless accusations about each other, like Lamar calling Drake a “certified pedophile,” and claiming the Canadian-born rapper had a secret daughter, though Drake denied this accusation. Drake alleged Whitney Alford—Lamar’s longtime fiance—cheated on him, and also accused Lamar of domestic violence. Several other artists got involved and dropped disses aimed at Drake, including Ye—formerly known as Kanye West—Rick Ross and Boomin, who recently released a beat called “BBL Drizzy,” and invited fans to rap over it as a contest.
Further Reading
Drake-Kendrick Lamar Feud Timeline: Drive-By Shooting At Drake’s House (Forbes)
