It was reported last week that Kendrick Lamar had passed Drake to claim the all-time record for the most monthly listeners in Spotify history among rappers. However, that ignored Post Malone and Bad Bunny (both of whom had higher all-time peaks than Lamar) and their contributions to hip-hop.
Now, though, Lamar has hit a more clear-cut superlative: He currently has 100 million monthly listeners (100,052,025, to be precise), which makes him the first rapper to reach that milestone in Spotify history.
The list of other artists to ever hit 100 million is a short one (per data from Kworb): Bruno Mars (151 million), The Weeknd (125), Ariana Grande (123), Lady Gaga (123), Taylor Swift (116), Billie Eilish (108), Justin Bieber (104), and Mariah Carey (100). That makes Lamar just the ninth artist to ever reach 100 million.
The next closest rappers behind Lamar are Post Malone (98), Bad Bunny (95), Drake (86), Eminem (86), Kanye West (78), Doja Cat (76), and Travis Scott (75).
Lamar has plenty to celebrate aside from this. This weekend, he achieved another hip-hop first by becoming the first rapper to have three simultaneous top-10 albums on the Billboard 200: GNX returns to No. 1, Damn rises to No. 9, and Good Kid, M.A.A.D City rounds out the list at No. 10. With SZA’s SOS hitting No. 2 this week, she and Lamar’s achievements mark the first time two Super Bowl Halftime Show performers take the top two spots on the chart following the game.
