Welcome to Billboard Professional’s Trending Up e-newsletter, the place we take a more in-depth take a look at the songs, artists, curiosities and traits which have caught the music business’s consideration. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them may turn out to be ubiquitous within the blink of a TikTok clip.
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See ad engagement movies, charts and information
See ad engagement movies, charts and information
This week: Pirates have raided the Indianapolis rap scene, The Weeknd has an enormous new era-capping film out and ATL rap simply retains driving the comeback wave.
Indianapolis Rapper Huge Ro6 Rides “Pirate Rap” to a Breakthrough Single
As Joey Bada$$ handles the West Coast in a still-unfurling, months-long rap beef, a wholly completely different wave is flooding out of the Midwest – Indiana, to be actual. Indianapolis rapper Huge Ro6 has set the web ablaze with “Choices,” a monitor he initially dropped final fall (Oct. 13, 2024).
When he first put out the track, Huge Ro6 supported it with a collection of stay performances, together with one on The Debut’s YouTube channel, which has garnered over 230,000 views since Nov. 6. The track did its factor all through the vacation season and into the brand new 12 months, however after Ryan Coogler’s Sinners hit theatres (April 18), the film’s exploration of Black and Irish music helped attune client’s ears to the Gaelic-esque, “pirate” inflections in Huge Ro6’s tone on “Choices.” On Could 2, Huge Ro6 dropped the monitor’s official music video, gifting individuals a visible to connect to their social media posts in regards to the track. By Could 14, TikTok consumer @kye.phlow began a dance problem with a video that has since earned over 85,500 views. Nicknamed a “hood shanty” and “pirate rap,” “Choices” has been inescapable throughout social media – and that’s displaying in its streaming totals.
Based on Luminate, “Choices” earned 121,000 official on-demand U.S. streams through the week of Could 2-8. By the next week (Could 9-15), that determine exploded by 713% to over 986,000 streams. The primary weekend post-music video launch (Could 9-12), the track pulled 119,000 streams. That determine boomed by over 1,176% to over 1.5 million streams the next weekend (Could 16-19).
With musicians like Morray hopping on the dance pattern, “Choices” may very properly proceed its streaming ascent. – KYLE DENIS
Waking Up ‘Tomorrow’: Weeknd Movie Boosts Streams for Album Tracks
4 months after The Weeknd unveiled Hurry Up Tomorrow — his first album since 2022’s Daybreak FM, which nonetheless stands as the most important No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 chart to this point this 12 months — the pop famous person released a companion film of the identical identify final weekend. Co-starring Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan, the full-length function finds The Weeknd portraying a fictionalized model of himself in a psychological thriller that he additionally co-wrote and co-produced.
After the undertaking hit theaters final Friday (Could 16), among the album tracks featured within the movie benefited on streaming providers: the title monitor, for example, earned 294,000 U.S. official on-demand streams within the movie’s first 4 days of launch (Could 16-19), up 42% from the identical four-day interval through the earlier week, in response to Luminate. “Gasoline” skilled an excellent larger bump, up 48% from 152,000 streams from Could 9-12 to 226,000 streams from Could 16-19. Whereas “Timeless,” The Weeknd’s hit single from the album alongside Playboi Carti, is again within the prime 20 of the Sizzling 100 this week — helped by its new Doechii-featuring remix — these streaming bumps give him a couple of extra choices for follow-up singles because the Hurry Up Tomorrow marketing campaign continues. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Bankroll Ni Notches ‘ATL’ One other Viral Rap Hit
Between Yung LA’s “Ain’t I” and BunnaB’s “Bunna Summa,” Atlanta rap is having a second on TikTok. ATL Mc Bankroll Ni is constant that pattern with the aptly titled “I’m So ATL.”
Aided by a easy dance pattern that compiles strikes from different 2025 dances and finds customers “swimming” and “consuming,” “I’m So ATL” has rapidly taken over socials, with everybody from Latto and Da Brat hopping on the pattern. Initially launched on April 18, the track pulled 94,000 official on-demand U.S. streams in its first week of launch (April 18-24), in response to Luminate. The next week (April 25-Could 1), streams rose over 200% to 285,000 streams, and the week after that (Could 2-8), they jumped an extra 90% to over 543,000 streams. In the course of the week of Could 9-15, streams for “I’m So ATL” — which apparently refers to each town of Atlanta and the phrase “about that life” — rose one other 51% to over 822,000 streams, making for a 771% elevate in streams over the previous 4 weeks.
Though the official TikTok sound is presently down, “I’m So ATL” is certain to proceed its TikTok domination by unofficial sounds. – KD