Here’s the Most-Streamed Rap Artists of 2022
Drake, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Ye, Lil Durk, Future, Rod Wave, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and the late Juice WRLD make the cut.
The top 100 most-streamed artists of 2022 is experiencing a rap takeover. Sitting at number one is Drake, who is now this year’s top-streamed artist so far with at 6.7 billion in streams. After earning his eleventh No. 1 album with Honestly, Nevermind, the “Falling Back” rapper returned to the festival circuit with the Road to OVO Fest held during the summer, with sets from fellow Young Money artists Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj.
Juice WRLD Is The 6th Most Streamed Artist Of 2022???
Incredible??#LLJW pic.twitter.com/xuxxbs14Ex
— 999 Bucky (#1 2019 My Year Enthusiast) (@x2bucky) October 17, 2022
On Tuesday (October 18), the 4-time Grammy Award winner looked back on his humble beginnings in rap, sharing an Instagram Story of a document where he was guaranteed $100 to open for Ice Cube in 2006 at now-defunct Toronto venue Kool Haus.
RAP FACT: Drake started out making $100 a show‼️? pic.twitter.com/miKqO8iJCi
— RapTV (@Rap) October 19, 2022
“This is for anybody getting 100 a show right now,” Drake wrote as the Instagram Story caption. “Keep going.”
Drake’s rap contemporaries and predecessors, also made the most-streamed list, as the “Massive” rapper was closely followed by YoungBoy Never Broke Again at No. 2. YoungBoy released one album this year (The Last Slimeto) and three mixtapes (Colors, Realer 2, 3800 Degrees).
Also on the list are the late Juice WRLD at No. 6 and Ye at No. 8, followed by Future, Lil Durk, Eminem, Rod Wave, Kendrick Lamar and Lil Baby, respectively. The latter artist released his 10th studio album It’s Only Me last Friday (October 14) and is also featured in new music book Rap Capital: An Atlanta Story by Joe Coscarelli.
“The main thing that I do still keep with me from Atlanta, when I go everywhere, is me,” Lil Baby said about his origins in a segment from the book. “My upbringing, my manners, my way of thinking, my way of living. Everything comes from Atlanta. No matter where I go, I’ll never be able to get distance from Atlanta.”