Earlier this month, Drake celebrated the tenth anniversary of his breakout So Far Gone mixtape by sharing the 2009 release on streaming services for the first time. Back in 2009, albums needed to be commercially released in order to be eligible for the Billboard charts, so this is the first time that the mixtape was able to appear on the charts. And appear it did: On the Billboard 200 chart dated March 2, So Far Gone makes its debut in the No. 5 spot, meaning that Drake didn’t even have to release new music to secure his tenth top-top album.
So Far Gone earned 45,000 equivalent album units in the week ending February 21, with 37,000 of those coming streaming equivalent album units, which equals about 47.4 million on-demand audio streams for the album’s songs. Impressively, the album was also the third most-streamed one of the week, behind Ariana Grande’s Thank U, Next and A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie’s Hoodie SZN.
It’s understandable why the mixtape would continue to resonate today: Aside from Drake still being a relevant mainstream artist, it also features contributions from Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and others who hip-hop fans still love. Drake thanked Kanye recently for clearing his sample of Kanye’s “Say You Will,” although Kanye previously said he denied the request.
