In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present.Book Bonus Beat: The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music.
Took him long enough.For the better part of a decade, Drake circled the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 like a hungry shark.
He got in there a couple of times, but only as a guest on two Rihanna songs.On his own, Drake got as far as #2 twice, and he launched a premature public celebration before his 2015 hit “Hotline Bling” stalled out in the runner-up spot.
(It’s a 5.) Drake wanted that #1 spot bad, and he tried just about everything in his considerable arsenal to capture it.Long before he had a #1 hit of his own, Drake was easily the biggest name in all of rap music, and he was up near the top of the pop heap, too.
He was a polymath who could play around in different genres but who always sounded like himself, and he commanded vast audiences.The only time that I ever went to Coachella was 2015, when Drake was the undisputed main attraction of the entire weekend.
During Drake’s headlining set, only one other person walked onstage: surprise guest Madonna, who sang a couple of songs, gave Drake a lapdance, and shoved her tongue down his throat.(As she left the stage, Drake theatrically wiped off his mouth and asked, “What the fuck was that?” By the time I made it back to my rental car, that moment was already a meme.) I watched this guy control a crowd of 100,000 dazed, exhausted revelers all by himself; it was really something.
When you can do that, you don’t necessarily need a #1 hit, but Drake wanted one anyway.In his quest to reach #1, Drake did all kinds of things.
He sang.He rapped.
He sing-rapped.He rap-sang.
He tried R&B, trap, boom-bap, indie-pop, dancehall, hyphy, synthpop, bounce, smartypants dance music, and various combinations thereof.On...