On Friday (August 18), Travis Scott eclipsed 75 million monthly listeners on Spotify, a metric that calculates the number of users who have listened to one song from an artist in a 28-day period. According to Chart Data, this is the most monthly listeners on the platform ever achieved by a rapper, as Scott has now ventured into practically uncharted territory in hip-hop history.
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Along with the aforementioned statistic, Scott now has the sixth most monthly listeners on Spotify, behind The Weeknd (113 million), Taylor Swift (98 million), Bad Bunny (83 million), Ed Sheeran (78 million), and Dua Lipa (77 million). Additionally, Scott’s achievement this week saw him surpass Drake, who currently has around 74.9 million, as Drake was widely considered the streaming king of hip-hop the past couple of years.
Scott’s surge can be credited to his July 28 studio album UTOPIA, which not only saw a welcomed return for the rapper after a 5-year break between solo LPs but also saw an absolutely stacked feature list. Throughout the project, appearances from Beyoncé, Drake, SZA, Bon Iver, 21 Savage, James Blake, Playboi Carti, Young Thug, and more all wowed listeners. Additionally, collaborating with two fellow monthly listeners giants in The Weeknd and Bad Bunny on the album’s lead single “K-POP,” Scott was able to mesh wide appeal with quality production and songwriting.
In its first week, UTOPIA debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 496,000 units sold. For its second week, the LP remained atop the chart, becoming the first full-length album of the year from a rapper to last two weeks at No. 1.
[RELTED: Travis Scott’s ‘UTOPIA’ Is First Rap Album of 2023 to Stay No. 1 for Two Weeks]
At the moment, although an official announcement has yet to be made, Scott plans on embarking on a nationwide tour for UTOPIA, which will include a date in his hometown Houston, Texas. What would be his first concert in the city since the widely-publicized, fatal Astroworld Festival in 2021, Houston police officers have been weary about the show’s potential.
“This is outrageous and the HPOU will be calling for all of our elected officials to stand up and say, ‘Not in our city, not again!’” HPD Union President Douglas Griffith said in a statement after catching wind of a UTOPIA show in Houston.
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