With 745.92 million streams in its first week, Scorpion broke US streaming records and topped the single day-records on Apple Music and Amazon Prime, with 300 million streams in 24 hours. By Team Viva
Nobody knows what the social media can do better than the rapper Drake. In 2015, when Hotline Bling hit the Billboards, the song made headlines for the ridiculousness of the music video. Scathing articles and memes were abound. All that attention made him an overnight sensation. Since then, the performer came around to using social media as a perfect sales tool.
Earlier this year, he released the EP that was part of the latest album Scorpion, God’s Plan, and challenged people online to do good. He distributed $50,000 in groceries to people and the same amount in college tuition for multiple individuals. In total, the Canadian rapper, who has romanced Rihanna and Jlo, spent $1 million doing good. After doing his bit, he wanted his fans to do the same. The challenge wasn’t meant to seek monetary donations from fans but motivate them to do whatever is possible in their capacity for another person. He had used Instagram to chart out the guidelines of the challenge, “do something for someone, anything, the smallest thing just to bring another human being some joy.” He urged people to do something good, even if it was only for 24 hours and titled it the “24-hour joy challenge.”
Unlike the previous well-intentioned challenge, the latest Kiki challenge, inspired from his music video In my Feelings, has led to more broken bones than joy. While the challenge was not started by the rapper himself, it is based on his song. Internet comedian Shiggy, the founder of The Shiggy Show, danced on New York City’s streets and has a following as big as 1.8 million. The challenge is thus also known as #DoTheShiggy or #ShiggyChallenge. This challenge has grabbed global attention so much so that the Delhi Police has warned people from dancing on the busy roads of the national capital.
Meanwhile, all this attention has translated into good business. The album Scorpion, which includes In my feelings, has got more than one billion streams globally in its first week of release. With 745.92 million streams in its first week, the album broke the US streaming records and topped the single day-records on Apple Music and Amazon Prime, with 300 million streams in 24 hours. Drake now owns four of the top 10 streaming weeks for an album.
last month, he owned the Billboard charts, where seven of his songs were in the Top 10. All 25 tracks from Scorpion, are on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. His former No. 1 hit, Nice for What, returned to the top of the chart too in the process. Drake’s other songs in the Top 10 were God’s Plan, In My Feelings, I’m Upset, Emotionless and Don’t Matter to Me, which includes previously recorded vocals from Michael Jackson. Drake’s new feat breaks the Beatles’ 1964 record, when five of their songs reached the Top 10 in the same week. He may not have started the latest challenge, but he has been a trend-jacker alright.