Drake Just Proved That He Is On Top Of His Game As He Reaches A New Milestone

Drake is on fire right now. His latest
album, Views, debuted at the top of the Billboard
200 chart and is continuing to set records for
sales and streaming. The track “One Dance”
featuring Wizkid and Kyla has become Drake’s
first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
His personal best
The album’s first week was a personal best for
Drake. It was first released for sale on the iTunes
Store and then for streaming on Apple Music.
Views became available for purchase from other
retailers on May 6. It earned 1.04 million album
units and sold 852,000 in traditional album sales.
The tracks were streamed a whopping 245.1
million times during the tracking week – and that
was just in the U.S. The number of plays includes
data from Apple Music as well as from other
services like music streaming services Spotify and
Pandora. Views surpassed Beyonce’s Lemonade ,
which earned 115.2 million plays in its first week.
One of the hottest albums of the year
Not only does the album’s sales figures
represent a personal best for Drake, Views also
sets the largest sales week of 2016 so far. In
addition, it marked the largest sales week for a
male artist in three years. The last male artist to
have a larger sales week was Justin Timberlake
in 2013. The overall units of the album are the
biggest since Adele’s 25 in 2015.
Staying on top
This is Drake’s sixth album to hit No. 1. What a
Time To Be Alive ( 2015), If You’re Reading This It’s
Too Late (2015), Nothing Was the Same (2013),
Take Care (2012) and Thank Me Later (2010) all
rose to the top. The only album that has not
topped the charts was his debut EP So Far Gone
(2009) – it reached No. 6.

The biggest moment of his career
Though he has had plenty of No. 1 albums, Drake
earned his first No. 1 track as a lead artist on the
Billboard Hot 100. The formula of the Hot 100 is
calculated through a ratio of sales, which
comprises 35-45%, airplay, consisting of 30-40%,
and streaming, which takes up 20-30%. Drake had
been in the Hot 100 before as a featured artist in
Rihanna’s songs “What’s My Name?” and
“Work.” And he has made it very close to the top
spot before. “Best I Ever Had” and “Hotline Bling”
both reached No. 2. But he has always been
working to earn that top spot.
“I spend my life trying to
make waves for the city I
am from [Toronto]. No
accolades really matter
to me other than the fact
that I have never had a
billboard number one,”
Drake posted on
Instagram when Hotline
Bling was working its
way up the charts. “If I
get my first number
one…it will be the
biggest moment of my
career to date (in my
mind)…”
While that particular song did not earn him the
title, his hard work has finally paid off. The
afrobeat-leaning single “One Dance,” co-produced
by Wizkid , topped the charts. ‘ I love you and
thank you for these memories,” Drake said to his
fans.