Drake Remains 2024’s Top Selling Rapper By Album Units Despite Not Dropping
Drake reportedly remains the top-selling hip-hop artist of 2024 by album units, despite not putting out a single album this year. Chart Data shared the ranking on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday, showing the Toronto rapper as the highest-selling artist.
The new report comes after DJ Akademiks predicted that 80-85 percent of Drake’s current streams are coming from projects that dropped years ago. “Also, he leveraged the fact that they’re eating so much off of his back catalog,” Ak expressed on one of his recent streams. “That dropping frequently helps the back catalog. And, by the way, 80 to 85 percent of Drake’s current streams is from albums that dropped over six years ago. And I’m being very fair here.”
NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 23: (L-R) PartyNextDoor and Drake attend Party Next. Door Live at S.O.B.’s on October 23, 2014, in New York City. (Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage)
Three spots behind Drake in fourth place is Kendrick Lamar. The two rappers have been feuding throughout 2024, with each dropping numerous diss tracks against the other. Lamar’s status is being helped by his new project, GNX, which hit streaming services last month. It’s projected to debut on the Billboard charts with over 300,000 in total sales. The tracklist features guest appearances from AzChike, Dody6, Hitta J3, Peysoh, Roddy Ricch, Siete7x, SZA, Wallie the Sensei, Lefty Gunplay, and YoungThreat. In addition to Kendrick Lamar, others on the album sales list include Future, Kanye West, Travis Scott, Eminem, NBA YoungBoy, Rod Wave, 21 Savage, and Tyler The Creator.
While Drake hasn’t released an album in 2024, he’s reportedly planning to drop a collaborative project with PartyNextDoor before the end of the year. His new lawsuit against Universal Music Group could put a kink in those plans, however, according to DJ Akademiks. Drake is accusing UMG of defamation as well as allegedly artificially boosting Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” Check out the full list of the top 10 rappers by album units below.