Meek Mill Reaches New Peak on Artists 500 as Drake Holds at Number One

Drake maintained an iron-fisted grip on the Number One spot of the Rolling Stone Artists 500 for the fifth straight week.

The rapper cruised to his 36th non-consecutive week at Number One with 241.9 million song streams for the week of October 1st through October 7th. While Drake’s latest album, Certified Lover Boy, was bumped from Number One on the Top 200 albums chart thanks to a special CD release of Taylor Swift’s new version of Fearless, Drake maintained the top two spots on the Top 100 songs chart, with “Way 2 Sexy” landing at Number One with 19.9 million streams and “Knife Talk” arriving at Two with 19.3 million streams.

Top Artists

The week of October 1, 2021
1

Drake


Song Streams
241.9M

2

YoungBoy Never Broke Again


Song Streams
155.7M

3

Meek Mill

Song Streams
116.7M

4

Kanye West

Song Streams
105.9M

5

Taylor Swift

Song Streams
97.6M

Youngboy Never Broke Again, meanwhile, held on to the Number Two spot on the Artists 500 chart with 155.7 million song streams, while Meek Mill cracked the Top 10 for the first time, peaking at Number Three with 116.7 million song streams. The rapper scored the highest debut on the RS200 this week as his new LP, Expensive Pain, bowed at Number Three with 97 million streams helping it move 88,400 album-equivalent units. 


The Rolling Stone Artists 500 chart ranks the most-streamed artists of the week in the United States, taking into account audio streams across an artist’s entire catalog during the tracking period. The chart does not include passive listening such as terrestrial radio or digital radio. The Artists 500 is updated daily, and each week Rolling Stone finalizes and publishes an official version of the chart, covering the seven-day period ending the previous Thursday.

Further down the chart, Adele picked up 25.9 million song streams as she hit a new peak of Number 61 as anticipation continues to build for her long-awaited new album. Indie star Mitski also hit a new peak, Number 137 with 16 million streams, following the arrival of her first new song in two years, “Working for the Knife.” 

Debuting this week on the RS500 was budding singer Ivan Cornejo, who picked up 8.5 million streams to land at Number 334 (he also debuted on the RS 100 with “Está Dañada” at Number 67, and the Trending 25 chart). Brandi Carlile also appeared on the Artists 500 for the first time, landing at Number 401 with 7.3 million streams as her new record, In These Silent Days, bowed at Number Eight on the RS200.