Pop Smoke Posthumously Conquers Artists 500 Chart

Pop Smoke has ended Drake’s latest reign atop the Rolling Stone Artists 500 chart, with the late Brooklyn rapper taking the top spot for the week of July 3rd through July 9th.

Pop Smoke amassed a whopping 251.1 million song streams thanks to the release of his posthumous album, Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon, which debuted at Number One on the Top 200 Albums chart, moving 245,000 album-equivalent units thanks to 224.8 million streams. The arrival of Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon also helped propel Pop Smoke’s mixtape, Meet the Woo 2 — which was released just days before his death in February — up to Number Nine as it moved 28,100 album units thanks mostly to 32.6 million streams.

Additionally, multiple songs from Shoot for the Moon landed in the Top 10 of the Top 100 Songs chart. “For the Night,” featuring Lil Baby and DaBaby, peaked highest at Number Two with 22.1 million streams. Other high-charting tracks included “The Woo,” with 50 Cent and Roddy Ricch, at Number Four with 18.6 million streams, and “Aim for the Moon,” featuring Quavo, at Number Seven, with 13.8 million streams.

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 ended the previous Thursday.

Coming in behind Pop Smoke was Drake, who picked up 108.3 million song streams, which still put him far and away above everyone else on the Artists 500. Lil Baby landed at Number Three with 78.7 million streams, while Juice WRLD rose from Number Seven to Number Four, notching 76.2 million streams (expect him to rise even further next week when his posthumous album, Legends Never Die, debuts on the charts).

Filling out the rest of the Top 10 on the RS500, in order, were familiar faces: Post Malone (71.3 million), DaBaby (70.6 million), Youngboy Never Broke Again (62.9 million), Lil Uzi Vert (62.4 million), The Weeknd (59.1 million) and Future (53.5 million).