The Problem with Drake Passing MJ
As most people predicted, including myself, Drake has finally gotten his 14th number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. This officially moves him past Michael Jackson on the all-time list, leaving him tied for third with Rihanna and Taylor Swift. And obviously at number one is the Beatles. And then at number two is Mariah Carey.
So technically Drake is the solo male artist leader of number one Billboard Hot 100 hits. And this has been something that Drake’s talked about for the last few years or so now. He’s been constantly throwing out these bars, comparing himself to Michael Jackson. I’m one away from Mike Beat It. This has been something that he’s really looked forward to doing, passing Michael Jackson as it’s clear that he at least to some degree idolized Michael Jackson.
He even has the bedazzled glove as the cover of Iceman. So all around just a lot of tributes and shouts to Mike throughout Drake’s music. He clearly loved the guy a lot. So this probably means a ton to Drake. And this really is an amazing accomplishment. like a truly truly great accomplishment. But I do have an issue with it. I’m sorry.
I have to be that guy. And people are going to watch this video and they’re going to say, “Oh, you’re just being a Drake hater. Drake hater. Drake hater.” And some people are going to like that I’m, you know, disagreeing with something that has something to do with Drake in a positive.
Like some people are going to be like, “Yes, we want Drake hate content.” Some people are going to be mad at it. I’m not even going to entertain it. Like, if you’re going to call me a Drake hater, you got it, bro. Like, if you were to list out all of the minutes that I’ve ever listened to music in my life, Drake is probably like number one or number two on that list.
So, it is what it is, right? But I realized that I had an issue with this accomplishment. When I saw the list of both of their number one hits, when I saw the 13 for Mike and then I saw the 14 for Drake, I was like, “Oh, this is kind of nasty.” And it’s really not even Drake’s fault. Like, it’s not even something where I’m like going at Drake over it.
Because it’s really just the system that’s set up for the music game at the moment. And Drake is just kind of a product of his environment in this sense and he’s just kind of taking advantage of what’s there and he would be stupid not to. But the reason I had a major issue with the list of songs is when you look at the 13 number ones for Mike, a majority of these songs are iconic Michael Jackson songs.
Songs that are pivotal to his career, songs that are culturally just super impactful. Culturally, they just have a a stamp on that time period. Like you can’t think of that time period’s music without thinking of some of these songs. Pop culture does not exist in the way it does today without some of these songs. And you look on the list for Drake and you look through his 14 and a lot of these songs were flashes in the pan.
A lot of them were just kind of quick little moments that kind of sort of happened out of nowhere. And low-key some of them are kind of forgettable. Like they’re not the iconic Drake songs that define his career and really shape him as an artist. Some of these songs you’re like, really? When you look at the list of Michael Jackson’s 13 songs, I would say like around 10 of these songs are just iconic, right? You got Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough, Rock with You, Billy Jean, Beat It, Bad, The Way You Make Me Feel, Man in the Mirror,
Dirty Diana, Black or White, You Were Not Alone. And you can argue for like another song or two here and there, but I would say that 10 of those 13 number one songs are pivotal to Michael Jackson’s career. When people start naming off songs that Mike put out, if they just say, “Hey, name some Michael Jackson songs.
” These are the songs that are going to fill up that list of names when people talk about just any Michael Jackson song. These songs were not just like big and popular. These were inevitable songs. These were songs that were moments, songs that just you could not miss. If you were around back then, you could not escape any of these songs.
You know these songs. You heard these songs. You know the lyrics to these songs. And then even somebody like myself who obviously was not alive back then, I know all of these songs. Now, I am, you know, obviously a little bit more into music than the average person. I have a music YouTube channel, but still like these are songs that are so culturally impactful.
If you are like a music listener in any sense that’s like beyond casual, you know, at least half of those songs at least. These are songs that you just could not miss. Literally, even if you weren’t like a big Michael Jackson fan or you don’t care for his music that much, you know these names. You know what these songs mean to a lot of people.
You know that these songs were bigger than just a big song. These were pivotal moments in US pop culture, really the world’s pop culture. These are songs that quite literally make up who Michael Jackson is. like as a career, as an artist, you can’t have Michael Jackson without a majority of these, without at least 10 of those songs.
What is Michael Jackson? What is his like, you know, that makes up a lot of him? And then when you look at Drake’s list, it’s just not the same. Now, I’m only going to look at the first 13 because Janice STFU literally just came out. But if you look at this list, there are iconic songs on here. What’s my name and work are iconic, but those are technically Rihanna songs.
So, I’ll focus on the Drake songs. One Dance, that is a real number one hit. iconic, huge everywhere. You could not miss one dance. Same thing with God’s Plan. Couldn’t miss it. Was literally the peak of pop culture in 2018. Inevitable. Nice for What is kind of teetering on that line, but I would give him Nice for What in terms of like an iconic song.
In My Feelings, I would definitely say that was a huge pop cultural moment. You can’t ignore In My Feelings. And then outside of that, it gets kind of rough. I would say maybe First Person Shooter just because of like kind of everything surrounding the circumstances of that song.
So you can I’ll give him that song too, but that’s like six out of 13. These are not the iconic Drake songs that make up his career. Honestly, you can take away most of these songs, maybe outside of God’s Plan and One Dance, and that doesn’t really change much about Drake. I can still tell the story of Drake without these songs. A lot of these songs were flashes in the in the pan.
they were popular, you know, they hit the number one chart, maybe they were number one, and then they fell to number eight, and then they were like pretty much out of there. Like, these were not songs that really just felt like cultural hits in the same way that some of the Michael Jackson songs felt like cultural hits.
They don’t have that same level of impact. And that’s not even me saying that Drake doesn’t have a ton of culturally impactful songs because he definitely does. And I’m not just talking about the quality. Like, in terms of real impact, pop culture, the songs everywhere, he has a ton of those songs. But these songs that are the number ones on his list just aren’t that.
Now, I want to be very clear when I’m comparing Drake to Michael Jackson. I’m not doing a direct onetoone comparison. It’s more so like a per your era, per capita, per what you are as an artist type of comparison. I’m not sitting here and trying to downplay Drake and his number one record because he didn’t make songs that are as impactful as Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough or Beat It.
Because for one, Michael Jackson’s arguably the greatest entertainer to walk this earth. And I just don’t think it’s super fair to be like, “Dang, Drake, why didn’t you make Tootsie Slide as, you know, impactful as Beat It or as impactful as Billy Jean in the pop culture.” Like, I’m not expecting that. That’s ridiculous.
And for another thing, they existed in two completely different eras. Michael Jackson existed in a time where there was still monoculture. There actually, in fact, was only monoculture. Like the the ways that you could absorb entertainment wasn’t very varied. I know that’s kind of a confusing sentence, but it wasn’t like, “Oh, you’re on the internet. You could be on Soundcloud.
You can be on Tik Tok. You can be on these different platforms. And you can be in the underground community. You can be in the rap community. You can be in the conscious rap community. You can be in the R&B community. You can be in the like there wasn’t a whole bunch of that. Everyone was kind of listening to the same thing.
Everyone knew when Michael Jackson was dropping it out. Everyone was there at the record store buying these albums. Everyone was turning on the radio and hearing the same songs. So, you didn’t have a bunch of options outside of the huge mainstream stars like we do today. Unless you go and find these underground artists like damn near in person like back in the 80s, right? Like today, if Drake drops an album, I don’t have to listen to it there.
I can exist in this world in this modern era, still be listening to new music and not listen to a single song that comes out from Drake. I can be in my underground rap world and listen to Osama Son, Net Spin, Shay, and all these guys and just be happy there. I don’t have to listen to Drake.
I’m not going to be on the radio. I’m not going to these parties and they’re only like, you know what I mean? like it’s just very different. So, I want to acknowledge that as well. There’s a very different way that pop culture is absorbed today. So, a number one song back in 1985 is way more culturally impactful than a number one song right now.
So, I just want that to be very clear. I understand the difference between Michael Jackson and Drake and the eras and all that stuff. I’m just talking about what they were doing in their time period for who they are as an artist. It doesn’t matter how big of a Drake fan you are. There’s no denying that when you look at that list of those 14 songs outside of Janice, right? It’s kind of underwhelming.
You look at these songs and you’re like, really? These are the songs that went number one for Drake. Like, these are the ones that are beating Michael Jackson and tied with Rihanna. Like, I don’t know. It’s just it just doesn’t feel all the way right because he has way more iconic songs than the songs that are on that list.
Like, of course, One Dance, iconic, inevitable. You couldn’t miss it. Same thing with uh God’s Plan. You couldn’t miss it. Real number one songs, but if you look outside of his number one hits, he has way bigger songs than the songs that are on that list. I would even say Noia, the most recent like really big hit that Drake had.
I would say that Noia is more impactful than like What’s Next, Toosy Slide, Way Too Sexy, uh what like maybe one more even like Jimmy Cooks. I would say that Nokia as a hit is more impactful than those songs. I would 100% say that Hotline Bling is way that might be arguably Drake’s most impactful song. It didn’t go number one.
It went number two, but still that might be Drake’s most impactful song. Hotline Bling literally is part of the defining songs of the 2010s era of music. It’s way more impactful, way more important to Drake’s career itself than anything that I listed about way too sexy, toots tootsie slide, what’s next, firsterson shooter, even Jimmy Cooks, like all that.
Hotline bling is one of them ones when it comes to Drake. Best I ever had is the beginning of who Drake eventually becomes in the future. Way more impactful than the stuff that we see on that list. Even something like Started from the Bottom, which I don’t even believe it hit like the top 10 at its peak, is way more culturally impactful than Tootsie Slide or What’s Next.
Controller, I would say, is way more culturally impactful than Tootsie Slide, What’s Next, Way Too Sexy, Jimmy Cooks, Firstperson Shooter, all of that stuff. Like, it’s it’s really kind of strange because Drake, it’s not like Drake is an artist where he’s just getting these Flash in the Pan number ones and he has no iconic songs. He does.
He has iconic songs. They’re just not the ones that are on the list of number ones. Mind you, I’m not complaining about the quality of these songs. I understand it’s not about what is my favorite Drake song, what Drake song I think sounds the best, because that’s subjective. And the list of the Billboard Hot 100 is literally just the most popular songs that given week in the country.
I’m just talking about the dent that they left in pop culture for some of these songs just really isn’t big. something like Ordinary, the Alex Alex Warren, I think the guy from Tik Tok who was trying to be David Dori for a few years. That guy, as much as I don’t like that song, I could not miss it.
I heard it everywhere when that song was number one. You know, like when you get in your car and maybe you got the Bluetooth, but it’s like that little like maybe 10 seconds when your car is on, the radio’s on, but your phone hasn’t connected yet. Every time there was that little gap of time between what was on my phone and the radio, it was Ordinary by the Alex dude.
I could not avoid I was so annoyed. I could not avoid that song. Tik Tok it. I just I saw that song literally everywhere. That was a real number one hit. Unfortunately, it was it was a real number one hit. And I also understand that a lot of this is circumstances. A lot of the songs that I mentioned that are better than the songs are more impactful than the songs that went number one went number two.
And something like Hotline Bling should be a number one hit. Like by every sense of the song, the metrics, the all it should have been a number one hit. It just happened to go against the hills by the weekend, which is also one of those certified cultural bangers, cultural moments wrapped up in a song.
So, a lot of this is circumstantial as well. Again, this is why I’m not like attacking Drake himself. I’m just looking at this list and just being like, this is kind of nasty. But, I’ve low-key had an issue with the number one songs we see out of the music industry over the past few years or so. And I think that this Drake situation is just finally giving me the courage to get it off my chest.
And the issue that I have is that the number one song thing feels more like a popularity contest than a real achievement. And I know that that sounds really stupid. I know because it’s quite literally the most popular song in the country for that week. But just let me explain. Right now in this modern era, we see a lot of songs debut at number one and then fall aggressively.
Like they will go from 1 to 12, 1 to 20, 1 to 30, 1 to 40. Like these songs drop really really hard sometimes. Like the biggest drops that we’ve seen from number one in Billboard history have all happened within the last like 5 years or so. And that that’s just not a coincidence. And it’s because these songs are debuting with a ton of hype.
Either it’s a ton of promotion from an extremely popular artist to the point in which it doesn’t even matter what they put out on the song. It’s gonna debut at number one or it’s the machine getting behind them, the industry, maybe a little bit of botting or it’s beefing like the song is really really hyped up because of the beef that’s going on for that specific week and then it kind of dies down afterwards.
Or maybe it’s just all three. But we’ve seen this a lot recently. We saw it with Travis Scott’s 4×4. That song debuted at number one, fell to like 57 in the second week, the biggest fall in Billboard history. We saw it with Trolls by Nicki Minaj and 6ix9ine. It went from 1 to like 34 or something like that. H by Mag Stallion. That song was super hyped up because of the beef.
The shot she took at uh Nicki Minaj, the shot she took at Drake, it went from like one to like 13 the next week. And then by the time we get to week two and three, it falls to like 30 and 50 or something like that. We look at even Drake himself, Slime You Out, went from number one to the next week, it’s number like 12. Like these songs are falling really aggressively to the point in which I damn near don’t even want to call them number one hits.
Which is why, for example, I respect Nokia as a hit way more than I respect Slime You Out because I watched Nokiia slowly but surely climb the charts week after week, get to the top 10, get to the top five, and then stick around there versus Slime You Out. It deflated like a balloon. It’s kind of like winning a player of the week award versus winning the MVP in the NBA.
Anybody can win player of the week. They can have a quick flash, three games where they put up 30 in those games. Oh, wow. Congratulations, player of the week. But an MVP has to be great the entire season. It’s consistent greatness. Think of one dance that took almost a month to get to the number one spot versus again Slime You Out. If the song is in its most popular peak, the very first week it came out, is that really a huge culturally impactful song? The very first week it came out is its most popular time period. I don’t know.
Nowadays, it’s halfway just like how popular are you before you drop the song. That’s half of getting a number one nowadays. How popular are you before you drop the song? How hard are you at that exact moment when you release the song? There is nothing that Drake could have dropped in this world where he was actually like being somewhat serious this past Friday that wouldn’t have went number one.
There was nothing he could have dropped where he was actually at least trying 50% where it would not have debuted at number one the very next week. Now, this is no small task for Drake or Taylor Swift to become that popular because you have to get to a level of popularity. Anybody can’t just do that. So, it is a great accomplishment for Taylor Swift or Drake to be so popular that they can just drop a song and it debuts at number one.
Like, that’s nothing to take away from them. But just being honest with Drake or a Taylor Swift when you’re that level of popular in this modern era, all you have to do to get a number one song is promote the song a little bit and not drop it the same week as like a juggernaut song. If there’s a number one song that is just kind of, you know, up there, it was three last week, it was one this week, it was five the week before, it’s just kind of bouncing around.
want it to drop from number one back to if it’s just like a random number one song and it’s not a really big strong song, they can just drop at any point in time with some promotion behind it and go number one. Funny enough, the two artists with the most number one songs to debut at number one are Drake with 10 and Taylor Swift with eight.
Now, maybe I’m making a mountain out of a moho, but this is just something that I’ve had an issue with in the music industry for quite a while now. Just seeing that list of the Drake number on’s really made this come out of me. Like I know not every number one song is going to be as big as Billy Jean, but for some of these songs it’s just like come on, bro.
Like that’s not like are we really going to like that’s a number one, but really Twi Slide dog? Tousy Slide is on the list of songs for Drake that are number one that puts him ahead of Michael Jackson. Now again, I understand that everything is circumstantial. Hotline Bling is a number one song in pretty much every other circumstance in history besides the week when it was going to fight for number one. Like, I get it.
It’s all circumstantial. If Tousy Slide might have dropped during the week of another big song, it doesn’t go number one. But still, when you look at that list, it’s just a bit disheartening. And Drake is the one that’s going to have to catch the flag for the sake of this point that I wanted to get across this point that I’ve had on my mind for the past like two or three years now.
But it just really is unfortunate that a lot of the time these number ones just don’t feel like number ones nowadays. They feel like songs that are popular because that artist was popular, that artist is really big, so that song’s popular for that week or there’s just a really good marketing push behind it. There’s a really good, you know, label behind it, pressing the right buttons, getting the song in the right places.
It just doesn’t feel authentic anymore. It doesn’t feel like, man, that was just a really big culturally impactful song that we just couldn’t miss. It feels like, man, UMG did a really good job promoting that song. Shout out to Sony, man. They really did a great job promoting that song rather than it really feeling like there’s a bunch of just authentic hits everywhere.
But again, just like really two slide,
