Drake is pushing Billboard records with his single One Dance securing the number one spot at Billboard’s Top 40 chart for the 13th consecutive week.
One Dance thus becomes the longest unbroken best song of the chart since Wet Wet Wet’s Love Is All Around in 1994.
Drake
Image source: Getty Images
There are only two singles that Drake has yet to beat: Love Is All Around (15 weeks) and Everything I Do, I Do It For You by Bryan Adams (16 weeks).
However, I Believe by Frankie Laine had 18 consecutive weeks on the charts back in 1953, but its reign was interrupted by two other songs in this period. It’s been nearly three months since Drake’s single has topped the charts.
Interestingly, Drake owes his success to streaming, as One Dance is only number 11 in this week’s single sales chart. But millions of streams allowed the single to remain number one at Billboard’s chart for 13 weeks in a row. The chart combines both sales and streaming music.
Meanwhile, Blink-182’s latest album titled California has reached its first number one spot. This is the U.S. pop-punk band’s seventh album and this time Tom Delonge was replaced by vocalist Matt Skiba.
“We’re so excited and thankful,” the band shared their excitement. “This is the first time we have ever got a number one, and we are super thankful to all of you for supporting us.”
Blink-182’s California has sold 24,000 copies to top the chart, which allowed them to push Adele’s record-breaking 25 into second place.
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In other news, breaking Billboard chart records is not the only thing that allowed Drake to make headlines this week. The rapper wrote an open letter to his social media followers, saying he was overwhelmed with emotions watching a footage of Alton Sterling getting shot by police in Louisiana last week.
“It’s impossible to ignore that the relationship between black and brown communities and law enforcement remains as strained as it was decade ago,” Drake wrote. “No one begins their life as a hashtag. Yet the trend of being reduced to one continues.”
Image source: Ron Jenkins/Getty Images
Drake also added that this issue is “real” and that he is “concerned” for the safety of his family, friends as well as any human being that could be affected by this. “I do not know the answer. But I believe things can change for the better. Open and honest dialogue is the first step.”
On the video, 37-year-old Alton Sterling is seen with two police officers holding him to the ground before the shots are fired. According to investigation, there were “multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and back” found on Sterling.
Protests haven’t subsided since the news of Sterling getting shot surfaced on the Internet. Drake hasn’t been the only celebrity who spoke out about the incident.
Jay Z even recorded a new song about the incident, titling it Spiritual. In the lyrics, Jay Z is heard singing “Got my hands in the air in despair/don’t shoot/I just wanna do good.”
The rapper released the song on Tidal on Thursday night and he attached an open letter to it, in which he admitted he began working on the song “a while ago.” In fact, Jay Z considered releasing the song after the Ferguson protests in 2014.
“I’m saddened and disappointed in this America,” Jay Z wrote. “We should be further along. We are not. I trust God and know everything that happens is for our greatest good, but man … it’s tough right now.”
Jay Z released the song shortly after his wife Beyoncé posted an open letter on her own website that same day, writing that she is “sick and tired” of police murdering young men and women in the U.S. “It’s up to us to take a stand and demand that they ‘stop killing us’,” she wrote.
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