The late rapper Juice WRLD claimed the Number One spot on the Rolling Stone Artists 500 chart, notching 179.9 million song streams for the week of December 6th through December 12th.
Juice WRLD died tragically and unexpectedly December 8th at the age of 21 after reportedly suffering a seizure at Chicago’s Midway Airport (an exact cause of death has yet to be announced). Fans of the Chicago rapper immediately started streaming and purchasing Juice WRLD’s music, leading to a 487 percent spike on on-demand audio streams, as Rolling Stone previously reported.
Juice WRLD’s 179.9 million streams were led by his breakout hit “Lucid Dreams,” which returned to the Top 100 Songs chart at Number Four with 18.7 million songs, while his recent collaboration with Youngboy Never Broke Again, “Bandit,” hit Number Five with 21.7 million streams. Meanwhile, Juice WRLD’s 2016 debut album, Goodbye and Good Riddance hit Number Five on the Top 200 Albums chart, moving 66,600 album-equivalent units, while his follow-up, Death Race for Love, released in March, hit Number Eight after moving 51,200 album-equivalent units.
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 ending with the previous Thursday.
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Roddy Ricch claimed the Number Two spot on the Artists 500, garnering 138.3 million streams as his new album, Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial, debuted atop the Top 200 Albums chart. The LP moved 101,500 album-equivalent units, mostly on the back of 125.7 million streams, while his song “The Box” debuted at Number Eight on the Top 100 Songs chart with 17.4 million streams. XXXTentacion also saw a posthumous rise on the Artists 500, reaching Number Three with 114.6 million streams as his new album, Bad Vibes Forever, bowed at Number Seven on the Top 200 with 57,700 album-equivalent units thanks to 66.5 million streams.
The rise of Juice WRLD, Roddy Ricch and XXXTentacion bumped several Artists 500 regulars down a few pegs: The Four Through 10 spots were occupied, in order, by Post Malone (109.9 million streams), Drake (91.1 million), Youngboy Never Broke Again (85.9 million), Trippie Redd (83.1 million), Billie Eilish (73.5 million), DaBaby (69.7 million) and the Weeknd (62.4 million).